Date: 14 Sep 2010
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Mr Ian Ridpath
Comets appear in our skies from time to time like ghostly apparitions. In the past they were regarded as omens of disease, death and destruction. Now we know that countless billions of them exist in the form of dirty snowballs at the edge of our Solar System, remnants from the formation of the Earth and other planets. We see them only on the rare occasions when they approach the Sun and heat up, releasing gas and dust to form a glowing head and tail. Recent space probe missions to comets have given us astounding close-up pictures and first-hand information on their composition and structure. This talk will explain scientists’ efforts to understand where comets come from, what they are made of, how they were formed and their role in the origin and development of life on Earth.
With comet 103P/Hartley expected to be visible through binoculars and perhaps even to the naked eye this autumn, as well as being visited by a space probe in early November, this talk is particularly topical.
Ian Ridpath is a popular writer on astronomy and is a former Council member of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Date: 4 Oct 2010
Time: 13:00
A Public Lecture by Prof.Steve Miller.
It was a revolution. It was London’s very own scientific revolution, and it took place in a building just off Piccadilly. In 1919 scientists gathered in Burlington House to hear how a recent expedition would help overturn centuries of scientific orthodoxy, supplanting Newton’s long-established ideas with Einstein’s radical new theory of General Relativity.
Steve Miller will take us through this and other stories of how past and present-day scientists in the capital have challenged and continue to shape our ideas about the nature of the Universe. He will describe the extraordinary discoveries and contributions of the men and women who work on everything from the search for life elsewhere to space exploration and the nature of the enigmatic ‘dark energy’ thought to pervade our cosmos. Find out how London astronomers lead the world in asking the deepest questions about the Universe we live in and how they contribute to life in our city.
Steve Miller FRAS is the Professor in Science Communication and Planetary Science at University College London
Admission: Free - by ticket only - These can be obtained from Leila Taleb, Geological Society 020 7432 0981 or email events@geolsoc.org.uk
Date: 12 Oct 2010
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Dr Mike Hapgood
As human society becomes more dependent on high technology, we face a new threat from Mother Nature. Many modern technologies are vulnerable to the effects of what scientists now term "space weather" - the ever-varying levels of radiation and magnetic fields in space. Like ordinary weather, space weather exhibits long periods of calm conditions which pose few problems, but occasionally there are large storms that can disrupt human activities and damage the infrastructures on which society depends - both those in space and many on the surface of the Earth. This talk will discuss the nature and history of space weather and how it has become a hazard to human society, especially over the past forty years. It will show that extreme space weather events are very rare, but also potentially very damaging. They must now be considered a major threat alongside other extremes of nature such as floods, tsunamis, hurricanes and other dangerous events.
Mike Hapgood is Head of the Space Environment Group in STFC's Space Science and Technology Department and Visiting Professor at Lancaster University. He has long experience of space weather working with other scientists, industry and government bodies in the UK and across Europe.
Date: 9 Nov 2010
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Professor Mike Cruise
Everything we know about the Universe comes from the study of electromagnetic waves (Light, Infra-Red, X-Rays, Radio etc) emitted by stars and galaxies at various temperatures. However, our picture of the Universe still has many puzzles to resolve and many of these concern very massive objects such as Black Holes which we believe give off other kinds of radiation- gravitational waves; - which have not yet been detected.
Predicted by Einstein in 1915, gravitational radiation manifests itself as extremely small changes in the geometry of space-time which travel out from massive objects undergoing severe acceleration. The movements expected in gravitational wave detectors at the Earth are much smaller than an atomic nucleus and are technologically extremely difficult to observe. World-wide efforts to detect this radiation and use it to better understand the content and evolution of the Universe are now reaching a sensitivity at which detections are expected in the next few years. The technology used in these sophisticated detectors will be described, together with predictions of the objects that will be studied.
Mike Cruise studied at University College London for his BSc and PhD and has been active in space astronomy for over three decades. He moved to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1986 and became Associate Director for Space Science and then moved to the University of Birmingham in 1995. He has represented the UK at the European Space Agency and is currently the Chairman of Scientific Commission H (Fundamental Physics) in Cospar.
His PhD thesis involved the development of novel imaging devices and led to the first synthetic aperture design at X-Ray wavelengths. For over two decades he has been interested in gravitational wave detection from space and ground based facilities and is a member of the LIGO consortium and the LISA International Science Team. His group at Birmingham designed and built the Phasemeter electronics for LISA Pathfinder. For the past fifteen years he has been developing very high frequency gravitational wave detectors based on gravitational-electromagnetic interactions and has detectors operating at Birmingham in the GHz and Optical frequency bands.
Date: 14 Dec 2010
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Professor Roger Davies
Galaxies are the building blocks of the Universe; they typically contain one hundred billion stars, hydrogen and obscuring dust. In this lecture we’ll explore the spectacular and varied nature of galaxies looking at their shapes, composition and whether they host stellar nurseries. We’ll see how Edwin Hubble measured the distances to galaxies and discovered the expanding Universe. The first clues to the existence of dark matter will emerge as we weigh galaxies and try to balance the cosmic scales. We’ll discover rare galaxy collisions found in today’s universe and hypothesise how, in the past, these galaxy mergers and interactions may have influenced them to produce the zoo of galaxies we see around us today.
Roger Davies is the Philip Wetton Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford University. He started working on the nature of galaxies in Cambridge in the 1970s after which he moved to California before spending 6 years on the staff of the US National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. As part of the ``7 Samurai'' team he worked out a new way of measuring the distances to galaxies and discovered the ``Great Attractor'', a huge concentration of galaxy clusters in the southern sky. He moved to Oxford in 1988 to lead the UK's participation in the construction of the 8m Gemini telescopes, in Hawaii and Chile. In 1994 he took up the post of Professor of Astronomy at Durham University returning to Oxford in 2002. His research interests centre on cosmology and how galaxies form and evolve. He has a longstanding interest in astronomical instruments & telescopes. In recent years he has pioneered the use of a new class of astronomical spectrograph to measure the masses and ages of galaxies, as well as search for black holes in their nuclei. He is President of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Date: 11 Jan 2011
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Dr Jane Greaves
The Sun is surrounded by a belt of comets, lying just outside the orbits of the planets. Some of these comets fall in towards the Sun and their paths can intersect with that of the Earth. During the early history of the Earth, there were many violent impacts on our planet, some so extreme they could melt the landmasses or remove the atmosphere. A re-arrangement of the planets dispersed most of the Sun's comets billions of years ago, so we are now relatively safe from such a catastrophic impact. However, many nearby stars that are otherwise similar to the Sun show evidence of vast swarms of long-lived comets. The evidence for this will be discussed, as will the implications for prolonged bombardment of Earth-like planets that may exist around the stars, and whether the rise of extra-terrestrial life would be halted by this, or perhaps helped in some exotic form.
Dr Greaves is a Reader at the University of St Andrews, appointed by the Astrobiology Initiative of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance.
Date: 8 Feb 2011
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Dr Jacqueline Mitton
Twelve of the 88 constellations are probably more familiar than any others because they share their names with the ‘star signs’ used by astrologers. The belt circling the sky that these constellations define is the zodiac.
The zodiac owes its significance, for astronomers as well as astrologers, to the fact that this relatively narrow band forms the starry backdrop for our view of the movements of the Sun, Moon, planets and most asteroids. Its existence is a consequence of the geography of the solar system.
It is truly old as a concept. Several zodiacal constellations had their origins in Mesopotamia around 5000 years ago and are among the oldest known constellations still in use. Going back to the earliest beginnings of the zodiac, we will look at how the idea of it, and the constellations making it up, have developed, as well as some of the myths that have been attached to it, and how it has been interpreted in art and buildings.
Over the last few hundred years, astronomers have adapted their heritage of traditional constellations so they are more useful for science. The astronomer’s zodiac is now very different from the star signs of astrology – a fact that can still surprise many people!
Jacqueline Mitton is author of more than 25 popular and children’s books on astronomy, including Zodiac: Celestial Circle of the Sun (Frances Lincoln, 2004). She was for 15 years the press officer of the Royal Astronomical Society and became the focus of a world-wide media storm in 1995 after pointing out to journalists the difference between the astrologers’ and astronomers’ zodiacs.
Date: 8 Mar 2011
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Professor Martin Barstow
Have you ever wanted to send a probe to a distant planet or look deep into the most remote regions of the Universe? Forget being a big city stock market trader or financial wizard. You could be a real rocket scientist!
Find out how, by following the story of British researchers as they prepare a new telescope for a demonstration flight into space, answering the questions of: why is it necessary to go into space in the first place? How do we do it and make everything work reliably? Share the frustrations and excitement of the team through video footage of the preparations and launch of the mission. Relax (?!!!) with the in-flight movie, recorded by on-board camera, which shows what it is like to take a ride on a gigantic firework, before wheeling through space to lock onto the chosen target, a dying white dwarf star. Experience the thrill of success, seeing a small corner of the Universe in a way no one has before.
Martin Barstow is Professor in Astrophysics & Space Science at the University of Leicester, Pro-Vice Chancellor and founding Head of the College of Science and Engineering.
Date: 12 Apr 2011
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Professor Ofer Lahav
It seems we live in a bizarre Universe. One of the greatest mysteries in the whole of science is the prospect that 75% of the Universe is made from a mysterious substance known as 'Dark Energy', which causes an acceleration of the cosmic expansion. Since a further 21% of the Universe is made from invisible 'Cold Dark Matter' that can only be detected through its gravitational effects, the ordinary atomic matter making up the rest is apparently only 4% of the total cosmic budget.
These discoveries require a shift in our perception as great as that made after Copernicus's revelation that the Earth moves around the Sun. The lecture will start by reviewing the chequered history of Dark Energy, not only since Einstein's proposal for a similar entity 1917, but tracing the concept back to Newton's ideas. The lecture will summarize the current evidence for Dark Energy and future international projects such as the "Dark Energy Survey", the Hubble Space Telescope and the proposed Euclid space mission.
Professor Ofer Lahav is Perren Professor of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics at University College London. He is also serving as a Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and as chair of the science committee of the international Dark Energy Survey.
Date: 10 May 2011
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Professor Paul Murdin
Paul Murdin talks about the big discoveries that unlocked the hidden secrets of the universe.
This illustrated talk, based on Murdin's recent book for Thames & Hudson, invites you to participate in moments of revelation and wonder as scientists first experienced them. Starting with discoveries made at the advent of the telescope, through to discoveries made within our own solar system and on to gravitation, relativity, pulsars, and black holes. In the end, Murdin unveils where astronomy still teeters on the edge of discovery, considering dark matter and dark energy.
Paul Murdin is an astronomer who has worked in observatories and space programmes in many countries all over the world. He makes a second career in writing about astronomy.
"Murdin has a genius for lucid explanation and attractive detail... [His] book beautifully illustrates the story of the astronomical quest." A.C. Grayling
Date: 14 Jun 2011
Time: 13:00
A public lecture by Dr Sue Bowler
More details are to follow soon.
