Broadcast 707 (Special Edition)

Professor Gibor Basri, Chair, Astronomy Department of UC Berkeley, was our special guest for this program. Our interview started with a quick assessment of the changes in astronomy over the past 26 years, the amount of time Professor Basri has been with the Berkeley Department of Astronomy. This is an interesting historical overview you will want to hear. We also talked about is role as a Co-Investigator on the NASA Kepler Mission designed to find Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of other stars. This discussion led us to define habitable zones for planets, what actually a planet is, the likelihood of life existing on another planet and actually being discovered and much more. We also talked about low mass starts, brows dwarfs, and the Pluto planet controversy. Many technical questions were asked by the listeners and other issues were discussed such as the VSE. When pushed for answers about science funding and prioritizing science missions, Dr. Basri said his own personal opinion is that NASA should devote resources to developing lower cost launch vehicles. You can send Professor Basri your questions or comments using basri@berkeley.edu. Please be sure to put "Space Show" in the subject line. You can also read many of his papers, review his full CV and learn more about Dr. Gibor Basri at his website, http://astro.berkeley.edu/~basri/.