Student Virtual Forum: Can't make it to Anchorage? Attend Online! The AAS Astronomy Education Board (AEB) is pleased to announce an experimental online session at the 220th AAS meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, called the Student Virtual Forum (SVF). Students (and anyone else) who cannot attend the meeting in person may nevertheless participate in one oral session "virtually," that is, from remote locations via the Internet.

For this first test of the SVF concept, done in partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute(STScI), the Meeting-in-a-Meeting session 306, entitled "Exoplanet Census from Kepler," will be webcast on Tuesday, June 12th, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. AKDT (2 p.m. EDT / 11 a.m. PDT). Here's an excerpt from the abstract: "This session will present the current the status of [NASA's] Kepler mission, the status of the exoplanet search, and the status of follow-up observations. Talks will cover specific classes of exoplanets and exoplanet systems, giving their characteristics, prevalence, and distributions. Both theory and observational talks will cover Earth-size and sub-Neptune-size planets, giant planet characterization, multiple-planet systems, and the dynamics of planetary systems."

Presentation slides and audio (but no video) will be webcast via the GoToMeeting service, and online attendees will be able to ask questions of the presenters via text chat. To register for free, simply provide your name and email address via the following link:
https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/9Anchorage Registration Reminder18932519

After registering you'll receive a confirmation email containing more detailed information about joining the webinar.

• PC-based attendees: Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
• Macintosh-based attendees: Mac OS X 10.5 or newer

The AEB thanks session 306 organizer Doug Caldwell (SETI Institute) and all the session speakers for their willingness to cooperate with us in this experiment, and thanks STScI for handling the technical details and providing financial support.

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