Year of Astronomy (broadcast Friday, February 27th, 2009)

Messier 101 in a composite of views from the Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory. Hubble/Chandra/Spitzer teams

2009 is a big year for science anniversaries. Biologists recently celebrated Darwin's 200th birthday. But 2009 is also the International Year of Astronomy -- this year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the skies, Kepler’s publication of Astronomia Nova. and Huygen’s 1659 publication of Systema Saturnium. In this segment, we'll talk with Mario Livio, a senior astrophysicist at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute and the Head of the Institute’s Office of Public Outreach, about the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. We'll also talk about current events in astronomy and what's ahead for the Hubble Space Telescope.