Astronomy on Tap!
Celebrate Astronomy Day at the Geo Centre with this fun, engaging, and educational evening of space-themed talks and activities.
Two short talks will be delivered, by Drs. Ivan Booth and Hilding Neilson. These will be interspersed with games, planetarium shows, and more. Cash bar by Red Oak Catering will be available.
Free admission.
Doors Open at 6:30
Cash Bar: 6:30-9:00pm
7:00pm: Welcome and Space Talk #1
7:35pm: Planetarium Show
8:00pm: Space Games
8:10pm: Space Talk #2
8:45pm: Planetarium Show
9:15pm: Space News & Games
Dr. Hilding Neilson
Title: Decolonizing the night sky: star stories, light pollution and the perils of space colonization
Humanity is entering a new era of space exploration as we send more and more satellites into orbit and prepare to build a new space station to orbit the Moon. Companies are developing new space capacities for tourism and mining and more. At the same time, we are having to deal with the growing problem of light pollution that is disconnecting us from the night sky. The exponential increase in orbital satellites are limiting the ability to do astronomy from the ground and space with some of the satellites being visible to the unaided eye. The promise of the new space economy threatens to impact the Moon, asteroids, and, eventually, Mars. In this talk I will review some of the issues being raised by the new space race and discuss how we can look to Indigenous knowledges for different paths forward that can support humanity’s relationship with the night sky and space.
Dr. Ivan Booth
Title: There Are Giants in Our Universe
Supermassive black holes with millions or billions times the mass of our sun live in the core of most galaxies. Occasionally their host galaxies collide and the black holes go into orbit around each other. By interacting with surrounding matter and emitting increasingly powerful gravitational waves, they spiral inwards, ultimately smashing together and merging in the most powerful astrophysical processes this side of the Big Bang. On June 27, scientists announced the first measurements of the gravitational wave rumble emitted from the nearest few hundred thousand (!!!?!!!) supermassive black hole binaries. In this talk, I will discuss these observations and how they are based on staring at neutron stars for decades on end.
Location: Johnson Geo Centre
Date and Time: Wednesday, Jul 26th at 06:30 PM - 09:30 PM (NDT)