Dr. Rodolfo Montez Jr. to Speak as Featured Guest for Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Science Speaker Series

Kelly Bernatzky • Jun 08, 2021

On June 9 at 7pm, Dr. Rodolfo Montez Jr. will kick off the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association’s Science Speaker Series for 2021 with his talk, “Going Out in Style: How Sun-like Stars End Their Lives.” This talk is part of our FREE Science Speaker Series and will be held via Zoom.


Stars like our sun will end their lives in a spectacular display of light. Space telescopes like Hubble provide unprecedented details of these displays and help us piece together the history and future of the lives of stars. Dr. Montez will provide a guided tour of some of his favorite Hubble images of stars at the end of their lives and explain the impact space telescopes have had on our understanding of how stars die.


Dr. Montez is an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian where he supports the NASA Great Observatory mission known as the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Dr. Montez has made numerous scientific contributions to the study of dying stars using space-based observations by Hubble and Chandra, as well as, ground-based observations from telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.


To register for this event, please follow the link below:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_opuXbGw9TzO5NUawryTZYA

 

Please stay tuned for the full list of this summer’s Science Speaker Series speakers.

 

This series is generously presented by our lead sponsor, Bank of America, and additional sponsors, White Elephant Resorts and Cape Air.   


The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization. Founded in 1902, the MMA works to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.

For Immediate Release

June 8 2021

Contact: Kelly Bernatzky, MMA Development Associate

kbernatzky@mariamitchell.org

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I have written of my love for sea glass and pottery shards in the past and the recent replacement of the sewer and water lines on Vestal Street created a small shard collection over the last month. Since the work required the asphalt to be completely removed (all twelve inches of it!) and the road to be dug up multiple times as they worked to remove pipe, relay new pipe, hook up the water meters, and install drainage and manhole covers, this resulted in the earth in the street being tossed about quite a bit. And, with that, came the shards! Some of these likely came from the sewer line (yes, yuck) but others came from being simply in the dirt of the road – which was not paved until 1946/1948. Pieces were likely tossed out at times, made to act as filler in holes, or simply tossed. So I found all sorts of pieces I will keep here at the Mitchell House. They included: a lovely piece with a red floral, many pieces of plates, glass, the top of a late nineteenth or early twentieth century (medicine) bottle, glass shards, a flattened spoon, a brass knob (found by a neighbor) some nails, a spike, pieces of a larger container or two based on the size and curve and coloring of the shards, and possibly a Wampanoag stone tool. One person’s trash is another one’s treasures! JNLF

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