Astronomy on Tap: a dip into icy chemistry

Our next event will take place on Monday 27 November at Grandcafé de Burcht at 20:00 CET!

Join us for a night of astronomy with two fantastic talks from Melissa McClure and Thanja Lamberts who will tell us about the icy chemical reactions happening in cold regions of molecular clouds and the interstellar medium, ultimately forming part of the building blocks of planets.

As always, there will be fun games where you could win cool science prizes!

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Melissa McClure: “Shaken, not stirred: Observing astrophysical ices with the James Webb Space Telescope”

Melissa is an assistant professor at the Leiden Observatory, where she studies how the composition of solid materials in space impacts the types of planets that form around young stars. In her talk, Melissa will present recent JWST detections that she and her team made for the coldest regions of molecular clouds, including both simple species like water and CO2, and more complex species like ethanol.

Thanja Lamberts: “Molecular Cocktails on the Rocks: Solid-state chemistry of ices in stellar nurserie”

Thanja is an assistant professor at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and at the Leiden Observatory. Her group focuses on computational astrochemistry to unravel which molecules can be formed efficiently in the dense regions of the interstellar medium. In her talk, Thanja will illustrate the molecules that form on the very cold ices and cover small dust grains floating around in the densest regions of the interstellar medium.

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Logistical information: We start at 20:00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the bar, save a seat, and grab a drink. We 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/