Astronomy on Tap Leiden: Secrets of Galaxies!

Our next event will take place on Monday 27 March 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 Folkert Nobels and Wout Goesaert who will tell us about explosions in galaxies and magnetic turbulent flows between galaxies. As always, there will be fun games where you could win cool science prizes!

Folkert Nobels: “How explosions shape galaxies”

Folkert Nobels is a PhD Candidate at the Leiden Observatory and he uses supercomputers to simulate the formation and evolution of galaxies. His research focuses on the formation of stars within galaxies, as well as the impact of energetic events on the mass and shape of galaxies. In his presentation, he will show the effects of explosions on galaxies and their surrounding gas. He will discuss the influence of supernovae, or exploding stars, on smaller galaxies like our Milky Way, as well as the impact of energetic events near supermassive black holes on the largest galaxies in the Universe.

Wout Goesaert: “Chasing Cosmic Turbulence: the secrets of magnetic fields in clusters of galaxies”

Wout is a master’s student at Leiden Observatory where he is studying the torus of a super massive black hole in the Circinus galaxy. Wout has always been interested in astronomy. He joined a youth organisation for astronomy called JVS-Descartes in his home country of Belgium when he was 8 years old and is currently their chairman. In this talk, Wout will be presenting the results of his bachelor’s research where he studied magnetic fields in clusters of galaxies. Galaxy clusters, one of the largest structures in the universe, are dynamic systems that regularly undergo collisions. These collisions cause turbulent flows in the gas between galaxies. By looking at the turbulence of magnetic fields that run through this gas, we might be able to tap into valuable information about the cluster’s history. Wout will demonstrate how new radio telescopes such as MeerKAT allow for this type of study in individual clusters.

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/