A Public Lecture by Dr David Mannion (CATS College, Canterbury).
Does our beautiful blue planet harbour the only intelligence in our Galaxy or our Universe? What are the chances of finding life or intelligent life in the next 100 years? How are we looking for planets around other stars and what hope have we of communicating with intelligent life?
Have we been visited by Aliens in prehistory? Will we ever be able to reach the stars?
These and other questions will be examined in what is an extremely popular theme for 21st Century Astronomy.
Dr David Mannion has three degrees in Astronomy and has taught in Schools and Colleges for 26 years in the UK, Austria and Turkey. He has also been a tutor for the Open University in both Physics and Astronomy.
Dr Mannion became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1984 and was a member of its Education Committee 2005 - 2010.
He has run numerous Astronomy Clubs and was a founder member and a Vice President of the Association for Astronomy Education. He co-authored a book on Galileo
called: “Galileo and 400 Years of telescopic Astronomy” published by Springer in 2010.
His other burning interest is weightlifting having once been a British Student Weightlifting and Powerlifting Champion in 1984. He is currently a National Referee for British Weightlifting and became a Masters Champion in the 94 kg class in 2007, 2010 and again in 2012.
He wishes to keep lifting weights and watching the stars for as long as possible.
See http://worldofastronomy.org.uk for more details.