If you or your group are planning to attend the talk,
please plan to arrive no later than 8:15pm !

Saturday, March 22, 8:30pm
Dr. Kelly Fast – Planetary Defense Officer at NASA Headquarters
(Webinar) Dr. Fast will describe her work at the Planetary Defense Coordination Office and the Near-Earth Object Observations Program.
These programs study and plan a response to our planet’s asteroid impact hazard.

Saturday, April 26, 8:30pm
Dr. Les Johnson - Physicist, Author and NASA Technologist
(Webinar) Les will be talking about solar sail propulsion for spacecraft and their many applications, from near-term science missions to study the sun and near Earth asteroids to more ambitious missions to the edge of the solar system and beyond. He is also an established author of several science fiction novels, popular science books, and a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Saturday, May 24, 8:30pm
Alan Witzgall – Past President of AAI, present Vice-President at NJAA.
(In-Person) During his years as a professional optician, Alan Witzgall worked on the optics for a variety of orbiting and ground-based projects. Well known for his presentations, his topic is the ancient giant meteor impact that created the Chesapeake Bay,

Saturday, June 28, 8:30pm
Dr. Dakotah Tyler - Astrophysicist and Science Communicator
(Webinar) Dr. Tyler will discuss his work in exoplanet demographics that has changed our view of how planetary systems form. The research involves analyzing patterns in exoplanet sizes, orbits and compositions.
See his article in the March, 2025 Scientific American.

Saturday, July 26, 8:30pm
Sarah Terracina – Aerospace engineer at Draper Laboratory
(In-Person) Sarah Terracina is an Aerospace Engineer with Draper Labs. She will share her path from the astronomy club at Metuchen HS to Rutgers University, internship at Boeing and Northrop Grumman to her present position as engineer at Draper. Her presentation should inspire and assist young people to enter similar fields in
astronomy and engineering.

Saturday, August 23, 8:30pm
Dr. Lauren Seyler – Professor of Microbiology – Stockton University Research Scientist
– Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
(In-Person) Dr. Seyler is a deep-sea biochemist and instructs a class in astrobiology. She will share her oceanographic work with reference to how life may have emerged on Earth and elsewhere in the Universe.

Saturday, September 27, 8:30pm
Science Communicator Kimberly Burtnyk.
(Webinar) She will be giving a presentation and virtual tour of LIGO –
the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory.

Saturday, October 25, 8:30pm
NJAA member Gary Donahue.
(In-Person) Gary will discuss The Great Comet Crash of 1994.
To everyone's surprise and delight, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted the planet Jupiter,
with each of its many fragments leaving a visible mark on the Jovian clouds.
A much observed cataclysmic event.