Winter Talks 2009 - 2010
If you would like to receive a paper copy of the programme of talks for this year, please email us at vis@roe.ac.uk with your postal address, and we will send one out to you. (We do not share our mailing list with any other companies).
Talks will run on Monday evenings from 7:30pm-8:30pm, in the Royal Observatory Edinburgh Lecture Theatre. Booking is not required for the talks, and tickets can be bought on the door. Season tickets will be available from the start of the programme.
Tickets: £3 adults, £1.50 children/concessions. Season tickets: £15 adults, £7.50 children/concessions.
January 18th
Helen Fraser - Crash diets - or how weightlessness and sharks are key to extraterrestrial
life
Building planets from the dust and gas in space isn't quite as easy as it seems. Think of throwing a snowball - you duck out the way to avoid getting hit - but a sand-ball - you just stand upwind of the thrower and laugh as it falls apart! So how do the tiny grains of dust and all that gas that are a by-product of star-formation eventually form new planets? What do the new planets look like and can they harbour life? How do you lose weight answering this question - well come along and find out....
January 25th
Stuart Lynn – The Night Sky in February
A guide to the night skies in the coming month of February.
February 1st
Andy Longmore & Duncan Forgan – Are We Alone? Debate
Could we be alone in the Universe? Or are we naïve thinking that our planet could be the only one in the whole Universe which could support life? If there is life elsewhere in the vastness of space, what would it be like? And will we ever find it? Come along to hear two Royal Observatory Edinburgh scientists debate the question: Are We Alone?
February 8th
Martin Hendry - Gravitational-wave astronomy: opening a new window on the Universe
Gravitational waves, the "ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity, are produced by some of the most violent and energetic phenomena in the cosmos, including black holes, neutron stars and supernovae. This talk will introduce the exciting new field of gravitational-wave astronomy, and the worldwide network of gravitational-wave "telescopes" which are designed to detect them. It will explore the challenges of the next decade: the new gravitational-wave telescopes and technology being developed and the exciting discoveries which might lie ahead as we open this new window on the Universe.
February 15th
Colin Cunningham – Revolutionary Technology in Astronomy
New technology has always had profound impact on the way we observe the universe, from Galileo’s telescope to modern space telescopes. Colin will show how these technologies have revolutionized our view of the universe and speculate on the impact of novel technologies in the future, including space and ground based telescopes, adaptive optics and photonic instrumentation.
February 22nd
Russell Eberst – The Night Sky in March
Find out what to look for, and where, in the night sky in March.
March 1st
Eli Atad-Ettedgui – Survey Telescopes in Space and Ground Based Astronomy
The Dark Universe is of great interest in current astronomy research. Many telescopes and instruments are now being built to study the mysterious properties of dark energy. This talk will describe the technology being used in building these space and ground based telescopes, which will help answer some of the important questions in cosmology.
March 8th
Chris Evans – The European Extremely Large Telescope
Europe is in the advanced stages of planning the world's largest optical-infrared telescope, with a primary diameter of 42 metres. Chris will summarise its design and some of the incredible observations we will be able to obtain with the "E-ELT", which will revolutionise our understanding of the space around us, from our own Solar System to the nature of the expanding Universe itself.
March 15th
Alan Heavens – Einstein and The Universe
According to George Gamow, Einstein said his greatest blunder was messing about with his equations of gravity, but then about 10 years ago cosmologists decided he was probably right to mess with them after all. What do cosmologists think now? Do observations of the Universe support Einstein's modified theory of gravity, or his original idea, or do we now have to discard Einstein's theory altogether, and consider a Universe with extra dimensions, branes and a new gravity law?
* The dates of the following 2 talks have been changed*
March 22nd
Stuart Lynn – The Night Sky in Summer
Although the nights are short and light in the Summer months there are still plenty of things to look out for.
March 29th
Helen Maynard – Strange minerals in the outer solar system
Beyond the asteroid belt, over half of our solar system is made up of ices – things like methane, ammonia and water, which are volatile here on Earth. These materials become the rock-forming minerals of moons such as Titan, Europa and Enceladus. Methane, ammonia and water also make up the bulk of the icy giants Uranus and Neptune. Unlike the silicates which make up the bulk of Earth, relatively little is known about the icy minerals. Helen will introduce these new minerals and discuss how they are studied and what impact these studies have had on our understanding of the outer solar system.
Rescheduled Talk April 12th
Julia Kennedy - Cool astronomy technology: for space and beyond
Many of the instruments used in astronomy today operate at very low temperatures, as low as -273 degrees C! Julia will demonstrate how and why these operate at low temperatures and present their applications in fields such as medicine, veterinary medicine and other areas of engineering.