Join us on the Summer Solstice which arrives today at 4:50pm!

Some 5,000 years ago, a Neolithic civilization in southern England erected the world’s most famous standing-stone monument. Yet its builders left no written records, so why and how they constructed it remains a mystery. Whatever its true purpose, Stonehenge remains an iconic enigma visited by 800,000 people each year. Now, using modern forensic techniques, teams of geochemists and anthropologists are learning crucial new details about when — and why — this iconic monument came to be. For example, they’ve determined that many of the smaller pillars, known as bluestones, were hauled to the site from a specific rock outcrop in central Wales — more than 100 miles away. And while Stonehenge is most famous for its alignment with the rising Sun during summer solstice, some researchers have suggested that it could have been constructed to serve as a daily calendar or even an eclipse calculator.

J. Kelly Beatty has been explaining the science and wonder of astronomy to the public since 1974, when he joined the staff of Sky & Telescope. An award-winning writer and communicator, he specializes in planetary science and space exploration. In 2018, after 43 years of pounding the keyboard, he retired from full-time work but remains actively involved in many S&T articles, tours, and other projects. You'll occasionally hear his interviews on National Public Radio. Kelly holds a Bachelors degree from the California Institute of Technology and a Master's degree from Boston University. During the 1980s he was among the first Western journalists to gain firsthand access to the Soviet space program. Asteroid 2925 Beatty was named on the occasion of his marriage in 1983, and in 1986 he was chosen one of the 100 semifinalists for NASA's Journalist in Space program.

If you or someone in your party need accommodations to attend this event, please email danversref@noblenet.org at least two weeks in advance of the date of the program.