It is our one year anniversary, and we’re celebrating with an exoplanet holiday! Our next edition will take place on Monday 26 of March at 20h in Grand Cafe De Burcht (Burgsteeg 14, 2312 JS Leiden). Join us for an evening of informal astronomy and great beer! Allona Vazan and Kamen Todorov from the University of Amsterdam will take us on a trip to some exoplanets — planets orbiting around stars other than our Sun.
Allona Vazan is a research fellow at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam. Allona likes planets, all kinds of planets, in our solar system and around other stars, without discrimination. She studies how planets are formed, how they grow up, and why some of them become more successful than others. In her talk she will show how much we can learn about planets from observing their outside, why the thousands of observed extra-solar planets changed our understanding, and what are the next steps in planetary research.
Kamen Todorov is a research fellow at the Institute for Astronomy at University of Amsterdam. He specializes in observations of planets outside the Solar System with a particular interest in their atmospheres. For these subtle studies, he uses some of the best telescopes on Earth and in space. In his talk, he will present how astronomers find new exoplanets and how they learn about the conditions there.
All ages and backgrounds welcome! The entry is free and no reservation is needed, but we recommend you arrive early to save a seat. And of course, beside the talks we will have fun games where you can win cool science prizes!