KAMLOOPS – British author and inventor Sir Arthur C. Clarke, most famous for his science-fiction novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name, will open a space odyssey of a different kind in Kamloops next Tuesday.
A taped message from Clarke, confined to a wheelchair in his adopted country of Sri Lanka, will signal the official launch of the TRU Astronomy Walk, a model project designed to help people of all ages understand something of the size, scale and distances between the planets, stars and galaxies that make up the universe.
“It’s one thing to learn facts and figures about the universe, but quite another to actually experience the scales involved. This is where the Astronomy Walk makes a big difference: it gives us a sense of perspective as nothing else can,” said Clarke from his home in Sri Lanka.
The walk and the models associated with it also serve to link TRU to the City of Kamloops (which hosts the “nearest star” portion of the model on the Millennium Trail just north of Windsor Avenue), TRU’s Williams Lake (Leo I ) campus, and important centres in the TRU region, including Merritt (The Small Magellanic Cloud), 100 Mile House (Leo II), Ashcroft (The Large Magellanic Cloud), and Chase (Ursa Minor), which house a model galaxy – a member of the “Local Group” of galaxies surrounding the Milky Way.
The launch will also feature the popular and widely respected astronomer Dr. Jaymie Matthews of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Matthews, an Associate Professor of Astronomy in UBC’s Department of Physics & Astronomy and Mission Scientist and Principal Investigator for MOST, a Canadian Space Agency project to study Microvariability & Oscillations of STars, is a leading expert in the field of stellar seismology: literally using the surface vibrations of vibrating stars to probe their hidden interiors and histories.
Vice-President of the Board of the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Chair of its Programming & Education Committee, Dr. Matthews is particularly interested in astronomy education and public outreach. His media (mis)adventures include frequent appearances on CityTV Vancouver and Space: The Imagination Station, hosting the upcoming “Starchasers” series on Canadian Learning Television, and posing in multiple guises (from a superhero flying in the ozone layer to an X-ray version of Austin Powers) in the Discovery Channel miniseries “Light: More Than Meets The Eye.” He has yet to live down being quoted in Discover Magazine as saying “Exploding Star Contains Atoms from Elvis Presley’s Brain – Scientists Confirm That the King of Rock & Roll Lived in Another Galaxy 160,000 Years Ago!”
The launch, scheduled for lift-off at 6:30 pm on the west end of Student Street in TRU’s Old Main building, will be followed by a free public showing of the movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the Independent Centre, located in TRU’s Campus Activity Centre.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Matthews, please contact Roger Collins at 250-371-5560.
