VIRTUAL: Great Falls Forum with Neil Comins
The 2020-2021 season of the Great Falls Forum kicks off on Wednesday, September 16th, featuring Dr. Neil F. Comins, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maine, Orono, with a talk entitled “What if the Moon Didn’t Exist?” The program will take place from 12 noon to 1 PM virtually via Zoom and streamed to the Lewiston Public Library Facebook page.
Our Moon is believed to have formed when a Mars-sized planet struck the young Earth, splashing debris into orbit around the Earth. That debris was a short-lived ring that clumped together and eventually formed the Moon. But what if that Mars-sized body missed the Earth and therefore the Moon never formed? In this Great Falls Forum talk, Neil will explore the consequences for Earth if it never had a moon.
Dr. Neil Comins graduated from Cornell University and then earned his Ph.D. at University College, Cardiff Wales. He has done research on general relativity, galaxy formation and evolution, identifying and correcting misconceptions about science, and applying “What if?” questions to interest people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) topics. His first talk on his research was to Stephen Hawking and his group at Cambridge University. He has been at the University of Maine since 1978, with time at Stanford and NASA Ames research center. He has published 21 books, 19 magazine articles, over 50 research papers, and over 150 radio and TV appearances, most recently on the BBC.
The Great Falls Forum is a monthly, brown-bag speaker series featuring statewide and regional leaders in public policy, business, academia and the arts. Admission is free to all Forum events. The Forum is a co-sponsorship of the Sun Journal, Bates College, and LPL. Recordings of the virtual Great Falls Forum programs will be archived on the Library’s YouTube channel following the live event.
For more information, please contact the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3135 or LPLReference@lewistonmaine.gov.
