Morehead Planetarium and Science Center

Skywatching: Views from The Durham
2022-08-08 20:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | The Durham Hotel, 315 E. Chapel Hill St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Join us on the roof of The Durham Hotel for a series of telescopic stargazing nights. Stop by for guided constellation tours, educational activities, all while enjoying music from DJ Mic Check. This event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

Mark your calendars for future dates:

September 12

Skywatching: Perseid Meteor Shower at Dix Park
2022-08-12 21:00 - 23:00 | Dix Park, 1010 Blair Drive, Raleigh, NC, 27603, United States
Join staff and volunteers from the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and Raleigh Astronomy Club to view the Perseid Meteor Shower at Dix Park.

To set the stargazing mood, the Triangle Sax Ensemble will be playing some tunes! Look through telescopes, facilitated by Morehead staff and dedicated volunteers, at the eclipse and other objects in the sky! Bring a blanket or chairs so you can relax under the stars.

This is an informal session, so you can arrive and leave any time during the program. However, if you plan to attend, please register so that we can send you any additional information you may need as we get closer to the date.

Please leave all pets at home, even those on a leash. Darkness, lots of people, expensive telescopes and pets on leashes is a bad combination. Pets will not be permitted near the telescopes.

Register

Registration: This event is free and no ticket required. Registration helps us plan for attendance and we can update registered participants of inclement weather changes.

Teen Science Cafe | Finding the Fountain of Youth in Space
2022-09-16 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Investigating the Role of Stem Cells in Spaceflight Telomere Elongation

Up in space, astronauts experience physiological changes reminiscent of aging such as muscle atrophy, loss of bone density, and stiffened arteries. However, they have been found to develop “longer” cellular telomeres at the same time. Because longer telomeres are linked to youth, this suggests that spaceflight could paradoxically be the cellular “fountain of youth” for astronauts. Our speaker will discuss this perplexing phenomenon and also dive into an active research proposal that will investigate whether the process is linked to stem cells.

Pristine Onuoha

About our speaker: Pristine Onuoha is a 17 year-old senior at East Chapel Hill High School who loves learning about how life works and real world applications of those questions. Pristine was named the 2022 Winner of the Genes in Space Competition for her space biology research proposal. As a result, Pristine will be working with scientists to develop this proposal for actual implementation aboard the International Space Station in 2023!

Starry Nights: Fall Skies
2022-09-26 19:00 - 20:30 | GSK Fulldome Theater

Skywatching: Views from The Durham
2022-10-10 20:00 - 22:00 | The Durham Hotel, 315 E. Chapel Hill St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Join us on the roof of The Durham Hotel for a series of telescopic stargazing nights. Stop by for guided constellation tours, educational activities, all while enjoying music from DJ Mic Check. This event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

Teen Science Cafe | Why every scientist needs to know how to code
2022-10-21 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27516, United States
Join us for a discussion about the importance of data science not just as a concentration, but as a skill every scientist and engineer needs to develop. Participants will explore couple of questions using real data downloaded directly from NASA and other sources live on the planetarium dome.

About our speaker: By day Tony Rice is a Development Security Operations Architect in Cisco’s government security division. By night, is a volunteer in the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors program speaking on space exploration in area libraries, schools, and museums. He also works with hundreds of broadcast meteorologists around the country to help them share the night sky with their audiences and is frequently seen on WRAL-TV and the Fox Weather channel.

[POSTPONED] Skywatching: Little River Regional Park
2022-11-11 18:00 - 20:00 | NC
Due to expected rainy weather conditions, this event has been postponed. Please join us for December’s Skywatching: Geminid Meteor Showers.

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center invites you to a free skywatching event at Little River Regional Park (weather permitting). Morehead educators and CHAOS members (from Chapel Hill Astronomical & Observational Society) will bring telescopes and guide you through fun observations of stars, planets, moons, nebulae and other celestial objects. Be sure to call the park office after 4pm for cloud/cancellation updates: 919-732-5505. Meet at the Play Meadow. All ages welcomed. Due to the fragile viewing equipment, please no dogs.

If you’re interested in finding out more about skywatching sessions with Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, check out this link: https://moreheadplanetarium.org/skywatching-faqs/

Teen Science Cafe | Back to the Geosphere: Impacts of CO2 Sequestration Underground
2022-11-18 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Geological carbon sequestration involves capturing atmospheric CO2, condensing it into liquid form, and pumping it into deep underground aquifers. Scientists have been exploring the environmental impacts of carbon sequestration, including changes to groundwater geochemistry, subsurface microbial community composition, and the potential for fracturing and escape of CO2 back into the atmosphere. I’ll give an overview of these impacts and share data illustrating the impact of high CO2 concentrations on subsurface microbial communities.

About our speaker: Megan Plenge is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her dissertation research focused on microbial controls on water chemistry. She is currently involved with the National Association of Geoscience Teacher (NAGT) as the North Carolina representative to the South East section, and as a program chair for their national conference, the Earth Educator Rendezvous.

UNC Research Spotlight with Tamlin Pavelsky: The NASA SWOT Mission
2022-12-05 10:00 - 11:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography Satellite: A New Eye in the Sky for Earth’s Water

Water is perhaps the single most important resource for humans and naturals systems. In the form of floods, it also drives the most destructive category of natural disasters worldwide. Despite its clear importance, there is a huge amount we do not know about where our water is and how it is changing. In this public talk, Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky will tell us about how NASA and collaborators around the world have developed a new satellite, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, that will give us an unprecedented global picture of the world’s river flow, lake water storage, and ocean circulation. SWOT is scheduled to launch this December, representing the culmination of more than 15 years of work by scientists and engineers. We will explore both the cutting-edge science that SWOT will accomplish and the long process that led to the development of this $1B satellite.

Dr. Tamlin Pavelsky is a professor of global hydrology in the Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his PhD in geography from UCLA in 2008. His dissertation focused on using remote sensing, field measurements, and large datasets to understand how the water cycle in northern environments varies in space and time. In 2009, Dr. Pavelsky was hired as an assistant professor at UNC. His teaching has focused on remote sensing, water resources, and hydrology, while his research has focused on understanding the global distribution of water in rivers, lakes, and mountain snowpack using satellite imagery, field measurements, and regional climate models. Since 2013, Dr. Pavelsky has served as the hydrology science lead for the NASA Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission. For his work leading the surface water community towards solutions for measuring river flow from space, Dr. Pavelsky was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest award given by the U.S. government to early career researchers. He grew up in central Alaska in cabins without electricity or running water.

Register Here

Teen Science Cafe: From the Rainforest to the UN: How Science Informs Climate Change Policy
2022-12-09 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium Fulldome Theater, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Professor Angel Hsu found herself in the lowland jungles of Costa Rica while studying abroad the summer after her freshman year at Wake Forest University, experiencing the beauty of glass tree frogs and sound of howler monkeys, but wondering, “What good is the science I’m discovering, if global warming and deforestation eventually lead to the demise of the rain forest?” This question motivated her to study climate change policy when she returned to the classroom. In this interactive talk, Prof. Hsu will talk about how science informs policy, drawing on her experience at the frontlines of international climate change policy.

About the speaker: Angel Hsu is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and the Environment, Ecology and Energy Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is the Founder and Principal Investigator of Data-Driven EnviroLab, an interdisciplinary group that uses emerging technologies and data-driven approaches to solve problems related to climate change policy. Angel previously held appointments at Yale-NUS college in Singapore as Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and was also the lead author of the 2018 UNEP Emissions Gap report chapter on non-state actors and an author for the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. Angel holds a PhD in Forestry and Environmental Studies from Yale University, an M Phil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, and a BS in Biology and BA in Political Science from Wake Forest University.

Skywatching: Geminid Showers
2022-12-13 20:00 - 22:00 | Little River Regional Park, 301 Little River Park Way, Rougemont, North Carolina, 27572, United States
One of the best meteor showers of the year – the Geminid meteor shower — will next peak on Tuesday, December 13, 2022.

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and Little River Regional park will host a free skywatching event.

Learn about meteors and more! For example, did you know meteors, sometimes misleadingly called “shooting stars,” are streaks of light caused by cosmic debris interacting with Earth’s atmosphere. Typically, this debris has been left by a comet. In the case of the Geminids, the source is an asteroid, 3200 Phaethon.

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Teen Science Cafe | The Surprising Life of Honeybees
2023-01-20 17:30 - 20:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Did you know that you could host a beehive in your backyard or at your favorite local business? Meet Jackson Brinkley, your friendly neighborhood beekeeper! As the lead beekeeper at Buddha Bee Apiary, he aims to build a program focused on sustainability and regenerative practices. Strong genetics from locally raised queens is a key interest of his, as well as educating the public on how to be better stewards of their environment.

Come learn about the incredible biology of bees, why they are so important to our environment, and how to take care of them. Budda Bee Apiary cares for beehives in backyards across Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill and beyond. They do this through our Host-a-Hive program, mentorship program for existing beekeepers, and educational content.

About the speaker: Jackson Brinkley stumbled into beekeeping when a friend asked if he wanted to help install some bees into a hive. Six years later, he is the lead beekeeper for Buddha Bee Apiary managing over 140 colonies around the Triangle.

Teen Science Cafe | Digital Media and the Teenage Brain
2023-02-17 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
UNC researchers, Kara Fox and Maria Maza, will share studies that show how digital media is impacting teens’ development as well as how teens are impacting the development of digital media.

For more information about UNC’s Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain, and Psychological Development work, visit https://www.teensandtech.org/

About our speakers:

Kara A. Fox is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at UNC Chapel Hill, working with Dr. Mitch Prinstein. She graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in psychology and visual media studies. Subsequently, as a research assistant at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, she worked on several studies examining mental health and treatment access among youth in the juvenile justice system. She is interested in the role of digital social norms and processes in development and health among adolescents and young adults. In addition to research, Kara loves teaching, working with children and families, and writing. In her free time, Kara enjoys knitting and crocheting, reading, and playing with her dog Laika.

Maria T Maza is a graduate student in the Developmental Psychology program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience and Education from Bates College in 2018. Following graduation, she worked as a research assistant and imaging coordinator with Dr. BJ Casey at Yale University. Her research aims to explore the impact of biosocial factors and technology on the developing brain and subsequent health risk behaviors. In her free time, Maria enjoys dancing, hiking, and baking.

Kara Fox, PhD Student, UNC-Chapel Hill

Maria Maza, PhD Student, UNC-Chapel Hill

Teen Science Cafe | Canaries of the Creek: Bioindicators Water Quality
2023-03-17 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Do you like scavenger hunts? How can you tell if creek water is clean and healthy. Join environmental educators and researchers Heather Holley and Sammy Bauer for a walk through the science of looking for certain kinds of stream bugs (aquatic macroinvertebrates) that need clean, unpolluted water to survive. What will you find as you dig through real-world data in local creeks and streams.

About our speakers:

Sammy Bauer (she/they) is an environmental educator and professional science communicator. She spends the bulk of her time teaching folks how to protect local waterways from pollution. Prior to pivoting into non-formal education, Sammy taught 6th grade Language Arts and Social Studies in Warren County, North Carolina. Sammy has a bachelor’s degree in communications and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. If you ask her about creek critters, rock climbing, or hotdog toppings, she will get very excited.

Heather Holley is an avid outdoors and nature lover with over 25 years in environmental and arboricultural experience in the private and public sectors. She has served as a Trail Crew Leader, Arboricultural Genetic Researcher, City Arborist, and Engineering/Stormwater Professional. Heather currently is the Stormwater Specialist for the Town of Carrboro Stormwater Division and has work for the City of Charleston, SC and the City of Doral, Fl. She studied Environmental Science at NC State University. If you ask her about her family, sewing, camping, horror movies, nature, or Disney, she will get very excited.

Sammy Bauer (she/they)

Heather Holley

Skywatching: Little River Regional Park
2023-03-24 20:00 - 22:00 | Little River Regional Park
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center invites you to a free skywatching event at Little River Regional Park (weather permitting). Come see Venus close to the waxing crescent Moon, plus Mars and other celestial delights!

Morehead educators and CHAOS members (from Chapel Hill Astronomical & Observational Society) will bring telescopes and guide you through fun observations of stars, planets, moons, nebulae and other celestial objects. Be sure to call the park office after 4pm for cloud/cancellation updates: 919-732-5505. Meet at the Play Meadow. All ages welcomed. Due to the fragile viewing equipment, please no dogs.

If you’re interested in finding out more about skywatching sessions with Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, check out this link: https://moreheadplanetarium.org/skywatching-faqs/

UNC Science Expo
2023-04-01 11:00 - 16:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27516, United States
Join us for one of the biggest celebrations of science in the state!

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, in partnership with the students and faculty at UNC, celebrate science with our community.

This annual celebration of science features more than 100 hands-on activities and science demonstrations lead by STEM students, researchers, and practitioners from UNC-Chapel Hill. The UNC Science Expo is your chance to get up close and personal with cutting edge science hands-on activities, demonstrations, games, and performances.

The UNC Science Expo is a signature event of the North Carolina Science Festival.

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Spot, an agile mobile robot from Boston Dynamics wows the crowd Morehead Planetarium and Science Center as part of UNC Science Expo, Saturday, April 9, 2022.

Carolina Science Cafe | Let's Chat about ChatGPT
2023-04-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Gizmo Brew Works, 157 E Franklin St #100, Chapel Hill, 27514
Finally returning after a 3-year hiatus, the Carolina Science Café returns to Franklin Street on a new day and a new location as Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s free, current science awareness program.

ChatGPT is an advanced language model from OpenAI, which has been making headlines as one of the most powerful AI models to date. Such AI models are being seen by some (including the) challenging human conceits about language and creativity on the one hand, and criticized as being glorified talking parrots on the other. In this talk, we will briefly delve into what ChatGPT and other language models are, how they work, and their potential impacts on public life, science, and the future of work and the creative arts. We will also discuss the ethical and societal implications of data-driven AI, such as issues of privacy and bias.

We will be joined by Shashank Srivastava, an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UNC Chapel Hill who studies natural language processing, with special interests in grounding language in perception, neuro-symbolic methods, and interactive machine learning. Earlier this year he sat on a panel for ChatGPT in Context, a discussion of this new technology and its real and imagined impacts on the campus community — and beyond.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Café will be hosted at Gizmo Brew Works on Tuesday, April 4, starting at 6:00 p.m.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Teen Science Cafe | Decoding the Structure of Birdsong
2023-04-21 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Teen Science Cafe is for you! This program is just for young adults, ages 13-18, and it’s free!

Birdsong is a unique form of animal communication, as it faces evolutionary pressures from mate selection and social learning, and it possesses a vast amount of diversity. There is still much left to understand about how this variation arises and its relevance in interactions between individuals of the same species.

This talk will examine an element of birdsong that has remained relatively enigmatic to researchers: syntax, or the sequence of notes within a song. By exposing wild male songbirds to songs with familiar and scrambled syntax, we can continue to decipher how information is conveyed in animal communication systems.

About The Speaker:

Emma Reinhardt is a graduate student in the Department of Biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She joined Dr. Keith Sockman’s lab after graduating with a BS in biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2020. Emma has worked with a variety of organisms, ranging from yeast to lizards to crabs, before landing on songbirds. She is interested in understanding which elements of birdsong are most relevant in reproductive interactions. In pursuit of this, Emma spends her summers in the mountains of southwest Colorado to collect data on a population of Lincoln’s sparrows, a small, brown bird with a wildly complex song.

Schedule

5:30 pm – Arrive and check in. We will gather inside the west, main entrance of Morehead.

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Pizza social. Pizza social will take place in our classrooms, located on the 2nd floor.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Discussion & activities. Presentations will take place at the Science LIVE! Stage.

*Please Note: Depending on scheduled activities, the program may end between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Carolina Science Cafe | Rethinking How We Use Our Landscapes
2023-05-02 18:00 - 19:00 | Gizmo Brew Works, 157 E Franklin St #100, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
How do we rethink our landscape usage? Let’s start with three positive outcomes: benefits to mental health, alleviation of food insecurity, and conservation for pollinators by planting habitats. Using data from mental health research and case studies on food insecurity on campus, we will explore the benefits of reconnecting with the natural world through gardening. Edible Campus UNC is currently partnering with the Chicago Botanical Garden on the community science project Budburst, a collection of researchers, educators, gardeners, and community scientists working together to illustrate the human impacts on the natural world around us.

This month we will be joined by Kyle Parker, a former UNC philosophy graduate who has spent the last decade working directly with UNC students growing organic produce for the UNC community. Now in his third year as coordinator at Edible Campus UNC, Kyle is at his best leading groups of students during volunteer workdays or engaging with visitors and foragers out in the gardens.

In recent years, he has consulted with students and staff from dozens of universities within the US and internationally regarding Edible Campus’ unique model for utilizing landscapes within urban environments to not only grow food but to also serve as pollinator habitats. Edible Campus is at the forefront of rethinking urban landscape usage to provide maximum utility to both humans and the environment.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Café will be hosted at Gizmo Brew Works on Tuesday, May 2nd, starting at 6:00 p.m.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Teen Science Cafe | Robotics, our FIRST priority
2023-05-19 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center Science Stage, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Join us for our May Teen Science Cafe where we will talk about FIRST Robotics as an organization, our guest’s most recent robot, and how they function as a team and meet their goals each year.

The Titanium Tigers is a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team hosted at Chapel Hill High School in Chapel Hill, NC, and run by its students. The group is made up of many bright students including Eera S., Kira M., Logan F., Avani H., Jasper E., Andrew C., Jack E., and Matthew M.

The team participates in the annual robotics competitions hosted by an organization called FIRST. They must build a new robot each year to meet the unique challenges of the annual game. Last year they won their first district event, were state finalists in the state championship, and attended the FIRST (world) Championship–all firsts in the team’s 10-year history.

Their mission is to enrich STEM education in their school and greater community. When they aren’t participating in competitions, they make a point of reaching out into the community and hope to inspire others to find their place in STEM.

Schedule

5:30 pm – Arrive and check in. We will gather inside the west, main entrance of Morehead.

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Pizza social. Pizza social will take place in our classrooms, located on the 2nd floor.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Discussion & activities. Presentations will take place at the Science LIVE! Stage.

*Please Note: Depending on scheduled activities, the program may end between 7 p.m and 7:30 p.m.

[CANCELED] Skywatching: Dix Park
2023-05-20 21:00 - 23:00 | Dix Park, 1010 Blair Drive, Raleigh, NC, 27603, United States
This event has been canceled due to weather.

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center invites you to a free skywatching event at Dix Park in downtown Raleigh (weather permitting). Come see Venus, Mars, and other celestial delights!

Morehead educators and Raleigh Astronomy Club will bring telescopes and guide you through fun observations of stars, planets, moons, nebulae, and other celestial objects.

If you’re interested in finding out more about skywatching sessions with Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, check out this link: https://moreheadplanetarium.org/skywatching-faqs/

Skywatching: Views from The Durham
2023-05-22 20:00 - 23:00, 2023-07-10 20:00 - 23:00, 2023-07-24 20:00 - 23:00 | The Durham Hotel, 315 E. Chapel Hill St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Join us on the roof of The Durham Hotel for a series of telescopic stargazing nights. Stop by for guided constellation tours and educational activities, all while enjoying music from DJ Mic Check. Music begins at 8:00 pm and stargazing begins at 9:00 pm. This skywatching event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

Carolina Science Cafe | Bacteria Get Hangry Too
2023-06-06 18:00 - 19:00 | Gizmo Brew Works, 157 E Franklin St #100, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Individual bacterial cells are miniscule, yet bacterial communities are responsible for activities that have major consequences for our planets, including causing infectious disease and carrying out major geochemical cycles. When considering the mechanisms by which such small cells carry out globally important functions it becomes clear that bacterial cells must work collectively to coordinate their activities and respond to their environment.

But how are such activities coordinated? Are there rules that determine how the community organizes and which activities different bacteria take? We will explore how bacterial communities are organized and what might be the benefits of having communities that are composed of many members that carry out unique roles.

This month we will be joined by Adam Rosenthal, an Assistant Professor in the UNC Medical School department of Microbiology and Immunology. Adam has been studying bacterial communities from backgrounds as diverse as the termite-gut and industrial fermenters. His newly established lab is trying to understand the extent and role of bacterial cell-to-cell differences during bacterial infection.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Café will be hosted at Gizmo Brew Works on Tuesday, June 6th, starting at 6:00 p.m.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe | Artemis II: There and Back Again
2023-07-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Gizmo Brew Works, 157 E Franklin St #100, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Join Nick Eakes, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and Astronomy Educator from Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, to discuss Artemis– NASA’s new lunar exploration program. For the first time in over 50 years, humanity is going to set foot on the Moon – sending the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface.

Through the Artemis missions, NASA will implement new technology to study our closest neighbor in new and better ways, with the ultimate goal of preparing for future human missions to Mars. Nick will provide the history and context of the Artemis program as well as updates on where we are in the mission timeline.

Nick Eakes has been an informal science educator at the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (MPSC) since 2008. Nick is a proud product of Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools and went on to receive his BA in Psychology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012. Along with actively presenting astronomy programs in the planetarium, Nick designs curriculum, travels the state with the NC Science Festival, and is currently the coordinator of Morehead’s astronomy outreach programs – including the Mobile Planetarium and Skywatching.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Café will be hosted at Gizmo Brew Works on Tuesday, July 11th, starting at 6:00 p.m.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Carolina Science Cafe | The Dark Side of the Universe
2023-08-01 18:00 - 19:00 | Gizmo Brew Works, 157 E Franklin St #100, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Join us on the first Tuesday of every month for Carolina Science Cafe, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s free, current science awareness program. For this month, we will be joined by Adrienne Erickcek to learn about dark energy and what that means for how our universe operates.

Designed for adults, this program explores the science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines.

Observations of the oldest light in the Universe and other astronomical measurements indicate that only 5% of the current energy content of the Universe is made of elements found on the periodic table. The other 95% is composed of dark matter and dark energy: dark matter is responsible for the growth of galaxies, while dark energy shoves galaxies apart at an accelerating rate. I will discuss how we infer the existence of dark matter and dark energy and how we hope to learn more about these key drivers of cosmic evolution.

A simulated image of the first dark matter structures to form in the universe.

About the Speaker:

Adrienne Erickcek joined the UNC physics and astronomy department in 2013 after completing a joint postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. She developed an interest in cosmology while an undergraduate student at Princeton University, and she went on to receive her Ph.D. in cosmology from Caltech. For the past several years, her research has focused on the first dark matter structures, and in 2018 she was awarded an NSF CAREER grant to investigate how to use dark matter to probe the evolution of the Universe during its first second.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Café will be hosted at Gizmo Brew Works on Tuesday, August 1st, starting at 6:00 p.m.

You do not need to register…just show up!

[CANCELED] Skywatching: Views from The Durham
2023-08-28 20:00 - 23:00 | The Durham Hotel, 315 E. Chapel Hill St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
This event has been canceled due to weather.

Join us on the roof of The Durham Hotel for a series of telescopic stargazing nights. Stop by for guided constellation tours and educational activities, all while enjoying music from DJ Mic Check. Music begins at 8:00 pm and stargazing begins at 9:00 pm. This skywatching event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

Carolina Science Cafe | Malaria in Africa: Ecology, Mitigation, and Challenges
2023-09-05 18:00 - 19:00 | Gizmo Brew Works, 157 E Franklin St #100, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States
Join us on the first Tuesday of every month for Carolina Science Cafe, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s free, current science awareness program. For this month, we will be joined by Dr. Michael Emch to explore spatial and timing patterns of malaria in the developing world.

Designed for adults, this program explores the science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines.

You might have noticed the recent news that there have been several locally acquired cases of malaria in the United States in both Texas and Florida for the first time in 20 years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 2,000 cases of mostly travel-related malaria were diagnosed in the United States each year. What does that mean for us here in North Carolina and the rest of the country more broadly? What is malaria and how is it transmitted? Learn more at our September Carolina Science Cafe to find out!

Half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria and there are almost 250 million cases globally and more than half a million deaths annually. More than 90% of the cases and deaths are in Africa, mostly in children. Malaria elimination is a goal with most countries attempting to become malaria-free within the next two decades. While there has been great progress in this fight, there have been recent setbacks. This discussion will describe malaria ecology, mitigation tools, and some of the challenges such as climate change.

Michael E. Emch, PhD, a health geographer, is a W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Geography and Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also a Fellow of the Carolina Population Center. He has published widely in the subfield of disease ecology, mostly of infectious diseases of the developing world. He directs the Spatial Health Research Group. He is also a member of the UNC Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology, and Ecology Lab. Many of the courses he teaches are about spatial components of health and disease.

His present research includes an NIH-funded study to evaluate the effectiveness a malaria vaccine in Malawi, Ghana, and Gabon, an NSF-funded study on the landscape genetics of swine influenza, and an NSF-funded study on the relationships between household energy use for cooking and heating and respiratory infections in Southern Africa.

Designed for adults, this program explores science topics making national and international headlines and offers the chance to meet the experts behind the headlines. The Carolina Science Café will be hosted at Gizmo Brew Works on Tuesday, September 5th, starting at 6:00 p.m.

You do not need to register…just show up!

Teen Science Cafe | Science Trivia Night
2023-09-15 17:30 - 19:00 | Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, 250 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27516, United States
Join us for our September Teen Science Cafe! 📚

Please join us at Morehead Planetarium on Friday, September 15th for a very exciting Teen Science Cafe! We will be joined by our 2023 – 2024 Teen Advisory Board for a fun-filled evening of science trivia jeopardy. The right doors up the big stairs will open at 5:30 for pizza and conversation. The cafe will start at 6:00 and wrap up around 7:00ish.As a preview of the topics we will cover this year, each category of the trivia will be an area of science that we will be discussing during this school year. From astronomy to zoology and everything in between, there is something for everyone!

About our presenters:Morehead’s Teen Advisory Board is a group of local high school students who set the agenda, tone, and structure of the Teen Science Cafe program. As a way to get to know everyone, they are excited to put together an exciting evening of team-building fun to kick off the school year.

Program Schedule

5:30 pm – Arrive and check in. We will gather inside the west, main entrance of Morehead.

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Pizza social. Pizza social will take place in our classrooms, located on the 2nd floor.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Discussion & activities. Presentations will take place at the Science LIVE! Stage.

*Please Note: Depending on scheduled activities, the program may end between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
