Science on Screen®: “Maine Astronaut Jessica Meir Flies the Farthest from Home a Human Can” followed by the film “Fly AwayHome”

Join us at The Gem for our FREE Science on Screen Event, Friday, May 7th, 5:30-8:00 p.m. 

Astronaut Jessica Meir will be Zooming into The Gem on Friday evening, and we are out this world with excitement! Born and raised in Caribou, ME, Jesscia went on to become one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class. Her first mission was a long-duration assignment aboard the International Space Station. She launched in October 2019, and returned to a changed world in April 2020. 

During her first spaceflight, Jessica made history, conducting the first three all-female spacewalks with crewmate Christina Koch. The crew performed hundreds of experiments and research on a variety of scientific disciplines. These studies included researching how human heart tissue functions in space, furthering our knowledge of human physiology in extreme environments. Jessica spent 205 days in space, made 3,280 orbits around the Earth, and traveled 86.9 million miles!

Not only are we excited to hear about Jessica?s space adventures, we are also looking forward to her telling us more about her Ph.D. and post-doctoral research. She studied the diving physiology of marine mammals and birds, focusing on the oxygen depletion in diving emperor penguins and elephant seals. She also investigated the high-flying bar-headed goose that migrates over Mt. Everest at very low oxygen levels.  Jessica trained geese to fly in a wind tunnel so that she could obtain various physiological measurements on them in reduced oxygen conditions. Her work with geese will be the perfect lead-in to our film for the evening, ?Fly Away Home?!

6:45-8:30: Fly Away Home? (Rated PG) After Amy (Anna Paquin) loses her mother in a car accident, she must uproot her life and move to Canada to live with her father, Thomas, (Jeff Daniels), an oddball inventor with whom she has no relationship. She initially struggles to find her her place in her new home, but things change when she stumbles upon a collection of abandoned goose eggs. When the eggs hatch, Amy and her dad work together teaching the motherless birds to fly south for the winter, and their relationship blooms.

Please reserve your seats today at www.thegemtheater.com. Seating is limited to 50 people. Two theaters will be used to ensure social distancing. If there is enough interest we will open up the third theater, as well, and make the limit 70 people.

A huge thank you to:

An initiative of the COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, with major support from the ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION.