Astrophysics Events
The Astrophysics Group has an active events program, which includes the annual Bolton lecture (which is free and open to the general public), talks to schools and local astronomical socities, alumni days, university open days, and activities during science week. Further details can be found below.
Other events within the School of Physics and Astronomy can be found under "For Schools" and under "News".
The Bolton Lecture
The Cassini-Huygens mission at Saturn and Titan and future outer planetary missions
The Bolton Lecture is held every autumn and is widely advertised in local schools. We aim to bring current developments in Astronomy and Particle Physics to a wide audience and to high schools in particular. The lecture series is named after Scriven Bolton (c1888-1929) a local benefactor whose bequest enables the University to provide a state-of-the-art observatory for the teaching of practical astronomy to undergraduates.
The 2010 lecture (to be held on 10th November) is to be given by Prof. Michele Dougherty, from Imperial College London. The lecture is open to the general public and will be given in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, in the Michael Sadler Building, at 5:30pm. For further information please contact Sarah Gardner: tel. 0113 343 3881 or e-mail s.m.gardner@leeds.ac.uk
Abstract
The international NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens space mission, presently orbiting the Saturn/Titan system, continues to provide spectacular results and discoveries six years after reaching its destination. I will describe some of them and reveal how the inter-disciplinary nature of the suite of onboard instruments allows us to best interpret the observations. The discovery of a geyser-like plume and the dynamic atmosphere on Saturn's small icy moon Enceladus is the best example of the type of analysis that this suite allows. This discovery has provided some of the first hard evidence of the co-existence of liquid water reservoirs and organic molecules elsewhere in the Solar System. I will also describe recent results concerning Saturn's internal planetary magnetic field, as well as observations of Titan, the only moon in the Solar System with a dense Earth-like atmosphere. The international collaborations arising from this mission are planning a joint mission to the Jupiter system, with a focus on two of its moons, Europa and Ganymede which may possess water oceans beneath their surfaces.
Professor Michele Dougherty began her academic career as an applied mathematician in the University of Natal, South Africa where she obtained her PhD in 1988. There she conducted research on fundamental plasma processes, including those by which cosmic rays drive a wind out of the Milky Way and others occurring in the Sun's corona. Subsequently, she spent time at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg before moving to Imperial College London where she works in the Space and Atmospheric Physics Group in the Blackett Laboratory. In the early 1990s Professor Dougherty began her involvement in the interpretation of data provided by space missions designed to probe the electric and magnetic fields of giant planets and their moons, and the energetic particles that they accelerate. She soon became a key member of teams proposing magnetometers, instruments for measuring the magnetic field, for spacecraft flying to other planets. This led to her becoming the Principal Investigator for the magnetometer on the Cassini Saturn Orbiter. Professor Dougherty's world leading scientific contributions resulted in her receiving the COSPAR Zeldovich Medal in 1996, Institute of Physics Chree Medal in 2007 and Royal Society Hughes Medal in 2008. Her breadth of knowledge and leadership abilities led to her being invited in 2009 to chair the Near Universe Advisory Panel of the UK research council funding research in a wide variety of areas. Her committee provides input affecting decisions concerning research extending from the top of the Earth's atmosphere to the outer boundary of the Galaxy. As a gifted communicator, she is frequently interviewed by the media. In December 2009, in a review of the ten most important scientific discoveries of the decade, the BBC News Channel featured her explaining the significance of the discovery, made by her team, of the dynamic atmosphere of Enceladus, one of Saturn's small moons.
Previous Lectures
The inagural lecture was given by David Williams in 1999, and speakers since then have included Leo Blitz (2000) and Trevor Weekes (2001). A lecture on "Solar System Formation" was given in October 2002 by Prof. Greg Morfill from the Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik in Garching. Prof. Jasper Kirkby from CERN, Geneva, gave the 2003 lecture titled "A Brief History of Cosmic Rays and Climate Change".
NASA astronaut and Leeds alumnus Dr. Piers Sellers lectured on "Leaving the Planet" in 2004. Dr. Sellers gave an account of his visit to the International Space Station, and showed his personal "home video" which included a tour of the inside of the Station and views of spacewalkers as they worked outside. NASA's plans for future solar exploration were also covered.
The 2008 lecture was given by our very own Prof. Alan Watson FRS, Spokesperson Emeritus for the Pierre Auger Collaboration, a group of more than 250 scientists from 17 countries. The multi-million dollar Pierre Auger Observatory received global news coverage in November 2007 following publication of its initial results in Science magazine "Correlation of the Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Extragalactic Objects" (or as Metro newspaper reported "black holes burp").
The 2009 lecture was given by Dr. Terence Kee (Chemistry, University of Leeds), and was titled "Interstellar Trash and Treasure: Meteorites and the Origin of Life". The question of how life on Earth begun was explored, with a focus on the role that complex organic molecules in space may have had.
Prof. Paola Caselli Inaugural Lecture
Prof. Paola Caselli delivered her inagural lecture on Monday 10th November 2008, at 5pm in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, in the Michael Sadler Building. The lecture was titled "The Chemical Heritage of Star and Planet Formation".
Abstract
A symbiotic relationship exists between the chemistry occurring in interstellar gas and its evolution to form stars and planets. The chemistry produces coolants, which enable gravitationally induced collapse, and also establishes the ionisation balance, which governs how the magnetic field regulates the collapse. The physical evolution changes the chemical composition. Astrophysicists observe molecules to track star and planet formation. The detected molecules include water and numerous organic species, which become incorporated into comets, meteors, and planets. Some meteorites even contain amino acids of probable interstellar origin. The chemistry of star and planet formation created initial conditions on Earth that triggered the emergence of life!