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Winchester Science Centre's evening Space Lectures are aimed at a level a little above most popular science lectures, so come prepared to exercise your brain and learn the science behind the headlines.
The speakers are chosen from the best academic speakers in the UK, with a talent for explaining difficult concepts and the knowledge to give the very latest news from the research community.
Although the primary audience is adults, older children are also welcome to attend.
Lecturer: Dr. Giovanni Mirouh
Abstract: In olden times, arts and science were associated as tools to describe the world. Greek philosophers described a mystical Universe where each planet and star would have a corresponding note, creating a cosmic orchestra. This description fell into oblivion until 1960 and the discovery of variations in the Solar luminosity. These variations come from surface vibrations caused by sound waves within the Sun, that resonates just like a (very big) bell. Most stars show similar variations, the real music of stars. It opened for the first time a window to the interior of the stars, and created whole new field of research: asteroseismology. Dr Mirouh will link recent results in this field, which is at the core of his current research, with basics of music theory. In the end, we will see that the vibrations of stars are not very different from those of a guitar string, and can even be used to compose pieces that are, quite literally, out of this world.
Dr. Giovanni Mirouh is a research fellow at the University of Surrey. His research focuses on asteroseismology and evolution of massive stars: these stars produce the most heavy elements of the universe (such as the ones planets are made of), and they evolve into black holes and neutron stars. Their study is complex as these stars rotate fast and often have binary companions, two phenomena that still call for a better description. Dr. Mirouh obtained his PhD. in 2016 from the University of Toulouse (France), then moving to the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA, Trieste, Italy) before the University of Surrey. He is also involved in the Kepler and TESS collaborations.
For more information and ticket details see Winchester Science Centre's website.
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