LEWISTON – Charles Lada, associate director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, will discuss the history of research into the formation of stars at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, in Room 113 of Bates College’s Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

Titled “The Origins of Star Formation Research: From Aristotle to Ambartsumian,” Lada’s talk is open to the public at no cost. For more information, call 786-6324 or e-mail [email protected].

Lada will look at the study of star formation and why it took so long for this discipline to become an active aspect of astronomical research. He’ll start with the ancient Greeks, touch on 18th-century astronomer William Herschel and his surprisingly modern concept of stellar origins, and review the 20th-century scientific advances that kindled a renaissance in star-formation research that continues unabated today.

Lada, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a doctorate from Harvard, researches the origins and early evolution of stars and planets and the cold molecular clouds that spawn them.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is located in Cambridge, Mass.