Astronomer to speak at free UM presentation

ORONO – Wendy Hagen Bauer, an astronomer at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, will give a free public presentation on “The Search for Extraterrestrial Life” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, in Room 100, Neville Hall, University of Maine.

A graduate of Mt. Holyoke College and the University of Hawaii, Hagen Bauer studies the process of mass loss from stars in the late stages of their lives. Her talk will summarize several issues in the search for life in other parts of the universe:

. Why it is thought that extraterrestrial life is likely to be carbon-based and require liquid water.

. Which types of stars would be likely, or not likely, to harbor intelligent life.

. Where in this solar system we might expect to find liquid water, including information learned from the Mars Exploration Rovers.

. How scientists are detecting planets around other stars and how they will attempt to find earth-sized planets in the future.

. The search for radio signals from intelligent life.

In addition to the public lecture, Hagen Bauer will give the weekly physics colloquium at 3:10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, in Room 140, Bennett Hall, and speak in several UMaine classes.

In her own research, Hagen Bauer is currently investigating the binary star system VV Cephei, in which a mass-losing supergiant star is orbited by a smaller, hotter companion.

She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the American Association of Variable Star Observers, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Council on Undergraduate Research and the International Astronomical Union.