ESA's Hipparcos satellite measured accurate positions of some 100,000 stars. Doing so from space represented a fundamentally new discipline in space science. ESA adopted the Gaia mission, a vastly more advanced star-mapping satellite, in 2000. Gaia was launched in 2013 and continues to operate flawlessly, measuring the positions of more than two billion stars with...
Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered...
ESA's Hipparcos satellite measured accurate positions of some 100,000 stars. Doing so from space represented a fundamentally new discipline in space science. ESA adopted the Gaia mission, a vastly more advanced star-mapping satellite, in 2000. Gaia was launched in 2013 and continues to operate flawlessly, measuring the positions of more than two billion stars with...
Is there a connection between the excess of matter over antimatter and handedness in biology? Joint lecture with the Herschel Astronomy Group and the Science Group The laws of physics were long thought to be unchanged when viewed in a mirror. We have known for over sixty years that they are not. As Sakharov first explained,...
Anomalies in Astronomical Survey Data Energy-intensive civilisations are likely to have a significant impact on both their local and extended environments – as already seen here on Earth. Advanced technical civilisations may reveal themselves to other civilisations by introducing anomalous signals into astronomical data. Artificial radio signals are an example but other possibilities include excess...
Humans have long been intrigued by the possibility that Mars might harbor life. Planetary scientists nowadays continue to hunt for evidence of it, and space technologists even advocate settling ourselves there permanently. These are bold projects, and in this talk I suggest that we look back before we look forward, to consider how humans studied...
Live & Virtual: Light Pollution is Bad for All Astronomers are aware of the difficulties that light pollution can pose for the pursuit of their activities. However, there is increasing evidence of much broader impacts on our health and environment that bring much wider interests to bear. Artificial light offers many benefits, but needs to...
This event is ONLINE only Humanity is preparing to return to the moon; this time not simply as tourists. Lunar regolith (dust) presents a risk when landing and operating anywhere on the lunar surface, but at the south pole this same material may also become a resource. However, the lunar south pole presents other interesting...
You can watch this event live at Queen Square or online - please select the relevant tickets when booking. Humans have long been intrigued by the possibility that Mars might harbour life. Planetary scientists nowadays continue to hunt for evidence of it, and space technologists even advocate settling ourselves there permanently. These are bold projects,...
This talk is online only. The history of water on Mars has huge implications for the possibility of life on Mars and the future of life on Earth. This is the first of two lectures on this subject, with the second lecture to be given by Steve Clifford in February Widespread fluvial dissection of the...
The speaker will be speaking live from California, and the talk can be watched on a large screen at 16 Queen Square, or online - please select the right ticket when booking. Casual observation of the night sky leads one to view the Universe as well-ordered and stable, changing only in minor ways and regularly,...
This event can be watched live at Queen Square OR online; please select the correct tickets when booking. The Hubble Space Telescope has become an icon of Astronomy and it is now more than 30 years old. The new and much more powerful James Webb Space Telescope will soon extend our frontiers of observation. Professor...
The water cycle of a cold early Mars - and its potential role in the persistence of a Northern Ocean Investigations by robotic spacecraft have provided persuasive evidence that early Mars was water-rich, hosting numerous lakes and possibly a northern ocean that covered as much as a third of the planet. This talk will review...
21-cm radio cosmology with the SKA - what happened after the Big Bang? This talk will explore the science behind understanding how the first stars formed and ionised the intergalactic medium, ~ 300 million years after the Big Bang, effectively transforming a mostly simple and empty universe into the realm of complex celestial objects we...
Please note: the speaker will be projected live onto a large screen at 16 Queen Square or you can watch online from elsewhere. The first astronomy themed stamp dates to 1887 when Brazil issued a perforated stamp, buff and blue in colour, depicting the Southern Cross. Even throughout the 1800s, stamps were being printed with astronomical...
A screening of the film William Herschel & the Universe, directed by George Sibley This event is part of H200 – the Herschel Society’s celebration of William Herschel on the bicentenary of his death. William Herschel, a 42 year old musician and amateur astronomer, discovered the first “new” planet in history in 1781. His telescopes,...
This all-day conference, at Queen Square or online, is the centrepiece of the Herschel Society’s celebration of William Herschel’s achievements on the 200th anniversary of his death in 1822. William is famous as the discoverer of the planet Uranus in 1781, but his importance to astronomy rests much more on his pioneering deep sky work...
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched on 23 July 1999 by the Space Shuttle Columbia. Now in its 23rd year of operations, Chandra continues to be an indispensable tool for expanding the frontiers of knowledge throughout astrophysics. Chandra's uniquely high (subarcsec) spatial, and spectral resolution have facilitated the deepest and sharpest images of the X-ray...
This talk examines the question of whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe. The simple answer is that we do not know. But by looking at the huge numbers of stars in our Galaxy and beyond, the vast numbers of planets around them, and the immense age of the Universe throughout which life might...
Professor Burton will be speaking live from Ireland and will be shown on a large screen at 16 Queen Square, or you can buy a Watch Online ticket and watch elsewhere. The fame of William, Caroline and John Herschel needs no introduction. Less well known are the Irish connections to their astronomical endeavours. Inspired...
How have advances in technology changed astronomy over the past 100 years? This talk will show just how closely discovery has followed technical innovation, allowing observations that would previously have seemed impossible. Obviously great advances have come with spaceflight allowing observations from outside the Earth’s atmosphere, but two other factors have also been crucial –...
Supermassive black holes: how to feed them and what happens when you do Supermassive black holes are present in the centres of practically all massive galaxies. Through most of their lives they have little impact on their surrounding galaxies. In rare cases, however, gas accretes onto the black hole, turning it into a so called...
The first billion years after the Big Bang represent the final frontier in assembling a complete picture of cosmic history. During this period early galaxies formed and the universe first became bathed in light. How and when did all this occur? Recent progress with the James Webb Space Telescope suggests we may soon witness this...
It is now widely accepted that artificial light at night can have negative effects on human health, but what of its effects on wildlife? Did you know for example that artificial light leads to the death of billions of birds each year and that it is a major driver of the “insect apocalypse”, with studies...
Ready to be illuminated? After two centuries of study scientists now understand how photosynthesis produces food from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, and releases oxygen. In this lecture Bob Fosbury will show how light performs other important functions which enable life, including humans, to thrive. In particular he explores how NIR (near infrared) light is...
What will SpaceX’s launch of their satellite constellation Starlink, mean for the science of astronomy and our use of the sky? Starlink is a system that on its own could soon have more than thirty thousand spacecraft deployed, meaning humans could see up to four hundred thousand satellites in the sky by the end of...
Think you’ve got a litter problem? Near-Earth space is littered with hundreds of millions of man-made objects rushing at very high speeds and risking collisions with each other. So, what risk does this astro-litter pose to the new constellations of satellites that will be occupying the skies, and how do we detect such tiny objects...
What do we know about the life of a black hole? Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916. In 2015, the seminal first detection was made of a signal that came from two black holes, spiralling around each other before crashing together. Since then almost 100 gravitational wave signals have been detected. But...
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) - astronomer, mathematician, visionary, dreamer, explorer, astrologer - is best known for his laws of planetary motion, providing one of the foundations for Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. This illustrated talk will focus as much on the personal and family life of this 'weird genius', as on his towering scientific achievements...
Meet John Herschel, much less famous today than either his father (William Herschel) or his aunt (Caroline Herschel), yet in his day he represented the very definition of what a scientist should be. In 1824, as BRLSI began, he too was just starting out. On Saturday 8 June 2024, BRLSI will host a conference dedicated to...
What is a Jantar Mantar? The extraordinary series of Stone Observatories, Jantar Mantars were created and built by Sawa Jai Singh II (1688 - 1744). Jantar Mantar translated means Instrument Calculation and refers to the functions of the instruments for astronomical measurements documenting the heavens based upon the principles of Galileo. The Jaipur site, the...