Kevin Manning knows a thing or two about astronomy.
And, the former NASA consultant and college instructor shared his knowledge in a 90-minute presentation about the solar system at the Hugh Embry Library in Dade City on Jan. 20.
Manning’s “Look Up to the Stars” presentation provided a virtual journey through the sun, the planets and their moons, and debris left over from the earliest times of the solar system’s formation.
Manning, who’s given workshops at the Hugh Embry Library on four other occasions, gave viewers of all ages an in-depth, yet understandable, history lesson on outer space and the eight planets.
(Kevin Weiss/Staff Photo)
“I like how he was able to condense everything into an hour-and-a-half presentation,” said Karyn Moses, who teaches science at R.B. Stewart Middle School in Zephyrhills. “It’s something that would take months to try to teach.”
Moses, who also operates an astronomy club at the school, plans on passing along a few of Manning’s factoids to her class.
“I’ve never been able to figure out the difference between a meteoroid and an asteroid,” she remarked. “I’m very thankful that he cleared that up, because I’ve searched and searched for that.
“Also, the exoplanets that we’re looking for around red dwarf stars is interesting to me — about how we’re finding them and why they’re easiest to find,” she said.
Jennifer Croteau of Dade City particularly enjoyed the visual aspect of Manning’s interactive presentation.
“I really enjoyed the photographs; just making it real,” Croteau said. “The actual 3-D and 360-degree views — I just found it awe-inspiring.
“It was just incredible how much has been going on for so long. It was a really neat opportunity to have someone at his level speak to where everyone could understand,” Croteau said.
With news of the possibility of a ninth planet existing, Manning was firm in in his assertion that Pluto never should have lost its planetary status in 2006. He believes Pluto should currently be the ninth planet.
“It’s really a captivating world because it has five moons; that’s four more than we have (on Earth),” Manning explained.
“There was concern about (Pluto) not sweeping out the area around it of the loose debris — that is one of the things that defines planets today. It was found that if Earth was where Pluto is, it wouldn’t have successfully sweeped the area around it either, so does that mean we should can Earth as a planet?
“I wish people would reconsider putting it back as a planet, and grandfather it in,” he said.
Furthermore, he noted that “Planet Nine” is located in the Kuiper Belt, which was another case made dismissing Pluto as a planet.
“The irony of the thing is that the guy who pushed originally for Pluto’s demotion as a planet, (Caltech professor) Mike Brown, is also the same guy who is purporting the presence of “Planet Nine” which is way out in the Kuiper Belt,” Manning said. “For this very distant object…to be even provisional called “Planet Nine” puzzles me, because of the argument against Pluto.”
Manning said that it’s “way too soon” to determine whether or not the so-called “Planet Nine” should be deserving of planetary status.
“We’re always being surprised, we’re always finding differences, so that’s why we need to keep an open mind about what is and what is not a planet,” he said.
Manning, who presents workshops at libraries, schools, universities and conventions throughout the United States, became interested in astronomy as a youth, when he used a childhood friend’s telescope to see the craters on the moon and Saturn’s plane of rings.
“I love the universe, and I love exploring the universe,” said Manning, who lives in New York, but refers to Tampa as his second home.
“There’s so much more out there that we don’t know. …Four percent of the entire universe is what we really know. Ninety-six percent is yet unknown…comprised of dark matter and dark energy.”
Despite the vast majority of the universe being unknown, Manning believes that may change over the next few decades, due to recent technological advances.
“There’s detectors aboard the ISS (International Space Station) that are getting a lot of data about dark matter and dark energy,” Manning said. “There’s different probes that are acquiring data, but it’s still a little nebulous.”
Published January 27, 2016
