Beyond Earth: The Search for Life in Our Solar System

Angus will start the talk by discussing the habitability of our solar system. We’ll investigate moons and planets, that at first glance look uninhabitable, but actually could have (or had) alien life. We'll also touch upon what this life could look like. Going on from this we’ll discuss the Fermi Paradox and try to answer the age-old question of ‘Are we alone in the universe?’. Following on from this, Angus will be happy to answer any questions.

Stellar black holes are difficult enough to find let alone when they are sleeping! They are sleeping (dormant) when they do not produce any light. I will explain how the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft was able to find the first dormant black holes, focusing on Gaia BH3, which is the most massive stellar black hole in our Milky Way Galaxy (either awake or asleep). It is only 1926 light years away - should you be worried? (Spoiler alert: no).

Times are changing in cosmology. Brand new, multi-million-pound telescopes are shaking up our understanding of what the Universe is made up of and how it works. In this session, I’ll make the case for the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that make up most of our Universe, touching on previous experiments that have got us to where we are. Next, we’ll look at some of the new kit in cosmology. I’ll show what this new generation of telescopes is mapping, and how this might change our understanding of the Universe.