AoT Leiden: Neutron Stars & Fast Radio Bursts!

Our next event will take place on Monday 28 November at Grandcafé de Burcht (Burgsteeg 14, 2312 JS Leiden) at 20:00 CET! Join us for a night of astronomy with two fantastic talks from Anna Watts and Jason Hessels who will tell us about neutron star and the mystery of fast radio bursts! As always, there will be fun games where you could win cool science prizes!

Register at https://aotleiden.eventbrite.nl/ (not required for entry but will help us gauge the number of people attending)

Anna Watts: “A NICER view of neutron stars”

Anna is a Professor at the University of Amsterdam studying the dense nuclear matter within neutron stars and the thermonuclear explosions that happen on their surfaces. She does this using X-ray astronomy, relativity, large amounts of supercomputer time, and copious cups of tea. In her talk, she will tell us how a small X-ray telescope on the International Space Station is mapping the inside and outside of neutron stars.

Jason Hessels: “Pin-pointing fast radio bursts in space and time”

Jason Hessels is Professor of Observational High-Energy Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam and Chief Astronomer at ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. His AstroFlash (https://astroflash-frb.github.io/) research team focuses on studying astrophysical radio transients at the highest-possible time and spatial resolution. Fast radio bursts have had astronomers scratching their heads for the last 15 years. What is the source of these remarkably luminous radio flashes originating long-long ago in galaxies far-far away? To solve this mystery, we need to tune our radio telescopes to observe at the highest-possible resolution. We need to zoom-in in both space and time to pinpoint the lairs in which fast radio bursts are produced.

Logistical information: We start at 20:00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the bar, save a seat, and grab a drink. We are not planning to stream the event live, but will be uploading a recording of the talks on our YouTube channel after the event.

Join us for an evening of astronomy and fun games where you could win cool science prizes!

For more information check out http://astronomyontap.nl/