Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week!

Lecture – Climate And The Demise Of Maya Civilization By Andre Droxler
Monday, June 29
6:30 p.m.
Climate conditions in the Maya’s time can be retrieved from the earth revealing that climate conditions influenced the destiny of the Maya. Geological data from Belize’s Central Shelf Lagoon and Blue Hole, areas proximal to where Maya Civilization thrived and then abruptly collapse are revealing that weather—rainfall fluctuations and frequent tropical cyclones—may have forced the Maya to abandon their sophisticated cities. Dr. André Droxler of the Center for the Study of the Environment and Society at Rice University will explain how Earth science is helping decode the history of the Maya. A special evening screening of Fate of the Maya in the Burke Baker Planetarium at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. is complimentary for lecture ticket holders.

Lecture – The Threat Of Asteroid Impacts By David Kring, Ph. D.
Tuesday, June 30
6:30 p.m.
In 2013 the world was riveted by the impact of an asteroid near the Russian town of Chelyabinsk, where over 1,000 people were injured. It was an eerie reminder of another, bigger, impact event that flattened a forest near the Tunguska River in Siberia on June 30, 1908 – and a modern-day example of the immense dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impact event in the Yucatán. Dr. David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute will describe how these types of impacts events have scarred Earth in the geologic past, the magnitude of their persisting threat today, and the steps we might take to mitigate these types of calamitous events in the future. A special evening screening of Impact in the Burke Baker Planetarium at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. is complimentary for lecture ticket holders to help celebrate Asteroid Day 2015.

Take Two: Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
Friday, July 3
7:00 p.m.
After an encounter with a U.F.O., a line worker feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.