NASA expert speaks about extrasolar planets

Earlier this spring, CCBC Dundalk welcomed Drake Deming as a special guest speaker on the topic of “Extrasolar Planets.” Deming, head of the Planetary Systems Branch Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, spoke to students and community members about planet-like bodies in the galaxy which belong to stars other than the sun and which can be seen through telescopes.

Deming received his master's degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1976. From 1976 to1980, he was a lecturer in Astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1980 he joined the scientific staff of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In 1991, he was named head of the Planetary Systems branch.

Deming’s scientific research concentrates on infrared observations of solar system objects such as the sun and planets, and on theoretical modeling of the 1994 collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter.