MCC offers free lecture on exoplanets

Published 1:45 pm Saturday, September 16, 2017

Meridian Community College and the NASA Mississippi Space Grant Cornsortium have schedule a free program, “Exoplanets: Worlds Beyond Our Own,” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26 in the McCain Theater on campus.

Edwin Faughn, director of Rainwater Observatory, will present the program that delves into the history, science fiction and science fact of worlds beyond our Earth, according to an MCC news release. There are 3,461 confirmed extrasolar planets, 578 multi-planetary systems and 4,696 Kepler candidate planets that have been discovered orbiting other stars in the Milkyway galaxy, Faughn said.

He anticiaptes that number to reach the trillions.

Faughn is an artist and lecturer specializing in space sciences and has presented hundreds of presentations to universities, museums, science centers, schools, churches of most major denominations and other faith based and civic organizations, according to the news release.

Faughn’s artwork has been featured by numerous international space science magazines, exhibitions and planetarium productions, according to the news release. A few of his credits include Scientific American, IAAA World Tour Space Art Exhibition, “The Artist’s Universe,” Federal Express World Headquarters and the world premiere of Titanic: The Exhibition.

Faughn served nearly 20 years as the art director for the Sharpe Planetarium of the Pink Palace Family of Museums in Memphis. His work has also been featured on the main Kepler website of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

For more information, contact Dr. Angie Carraway, MCC chemistry instructor, at 601-484-8660 or acarrawa@meridiancc.edu