Free Astronomy Public Lectures

Presented by Dr Nick Lomb on 16th May 2014.

Melbourne is brightly lit at night. Some lighting is needed for safety, security and to make the city centre an attractive place, but is it all necessary? Why are we lighting the sky when no one lives there? In this talk we will discuss good and bad lighting and consider the effects of night-time lighting on safety, on the environment, on nocturnal animals and, most importantly, on our health. We will end by discussing what we can do individually and collectively to improve the night-time environment.

Presented by Dr Jeff Cooke on 11th April 2014.

In this talk, I will take you back to a time shortly after the Big Bang when the first stars emerged from the darkness. Many of these stars were much more massive than our Sun and ended their short lives as extraordinarily brilliant supernova explosions. Using new techniques and the power of the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, now controllable from Swinburne, we are able to detect supernova explosions that occurred more than 12 billion years ago and are hot on the trail toward detecting the deaths of the very first stars.

Presented by Dr Jeff Cooke on 11th April 2014.

In this talk, I will take you back to a time shortly after the Big Bang when the first stars emerged from the darkness. Many of these stars were much more massive than our Sun and ended their short lives as extraordinarily brilliant supernova explosions. Using new techniques and the power of the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, now controllable from Swinburne, we are able to detect supernova explosions that occurred more than 12 billion years ago and are hot on the trail toward detecting the deaths of the very first stars.

Presented by Dr Ivo Labbe on 21st March 2014.

The arrival of modern space telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope have ushered in a true golden age in astronomy. We can now peer farther and deeper into the universe than ever before and are getting an astonishing glimpse of the distant past. The most sensitive astronomical picture ever taken, the so-called Hubble Ultra Deep Field, reveals a time long gone when galaxies like our Milky way were only just forming, bursting with explosive star formation and ultramassive black holes. Hubble's powerful successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is now being build. Launched in 2018, it will allow astronomers to reach the ultimate goal: studying the entire cosmic history, from the very first exploding stars just after the Big Bang, to the rich universe filled with diverse populations of galaxies today.

Presented by Dr Ivo Labbe on 21st March 2014.

The arrival of modern space telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope have ushered in a true golden age in astronomy. We can now peer farther and deeper into the universe than ever before and are getting an astonishing glimpse of the distant past. The most sensitive astronomical picture ever taken, the so-called Hubble Ultra Deep Field, reveals a time long gone when galaxies like our Milky way were only just forming, bursting with explosive star formation and ultramassive black holes. Hubble's powerful successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is now being build. Launched in 2018, it will allow astronomers to reach the ultimate goal: studying the entire cosmic history, from the very first exploding stars just after the Big Bang, to the rich universe filled with diverse populations of galaxies today.

Presented by Professor Duncan Forbes on 11th February 2014.

Ancient star clusters are the fossils of the astronomical world. They formed at early times in the Universe and many have survived to the present day. New discoveries made with the Keck Observatory have uncovered a host of previously unknown star clusters - some more massive than small galaxies. Join us for an engaging presentation by Professor Duncan Forbes from Swinburne University, Australia, as he shares his current research and asks us all to consider, "What is a galaxy?"

Presented by Professor Duncan Forbes on 11th February 2014.

Ancient star clusters are the fossils of the astronomical world. They formed at early times in the Universe and many have survived to the present day. New discoveries made with the Keck Observatory have uncovered a host of previously unknown star clusters - some more massive than small galaxies. Join us for an engaging presentation by Professor Duncan Forbes from Swinburne University, Australia, as he shares his current research and asks us all to consider, "What is a galaxy?"

Presented by Dr Eyal Kazin on 8th November 2013.

Astronomers and Physicists have an interesting ongoing relationship. Normally, physicists explain natural phenomena, and tell astronomers what they should be probing in space. Once in a while, however, astronomers point out observations that cause the theorists to poke in the dark for interpretations. Dr. Kazin will bring the audience up to speed on the frontiers of these golden ages of cosmology and explain why scientists are still baffled about the mysterious dark nature of the Universe.

Presented by Dr Eyal Kazin on 8th November 2013.

Astronomers and Physicists have an interesting ongoing relationship. Normally, physicists explain natural phenomena, and tell astronomers what they should be probing in space. Once in a while, however, astronomers point out observations that cause the theorists to poke in the dark for interpretations. Dr. Kazin will bring the audience up to speed on the frontiers of these golden ages of cosmology and explain why scientists are still baffled about the mysterious dark nature of the Universe.

Presented by Associate Professor Chris Blake on 11th October 2013.

As we peer out into space, what is the most distant light we can see? The answer is the cosmic microwave background radiation, the faint afterglow of the hot Big Bang across the sky, which has travelled for almost 14 billion years to reach us. Within the microwave background, at the edge of the observable Universe, we can see the tiny ripples out of which galaxies such as our own later formed. In this talk, Assoc. Prof. Chris Blake from Swinburne's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will explain the crucial importance of this faint radiation for establishing our modern picture of the Universe, and will describe recent breakthrough measurements from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite.