Name: Chaotic Cosmos
Start: 2026-05-19T19:30:00
End: 2026-05-19T21:00:00
Location: The London Hotel

The Universe is a violent, dynamic, and ever-changing place, shaped by powerful events across vastly different scales. From the explosive deaths of stars in supernovae, which forge the very elements that make up planets and life, to the dramatic collisions of entire galaxies that drive their growth, transformation, or eventual “death”, join us for a journey through the chaotic dance of the universe.

Supernovae: The Universe’s Atom Factory

Edward Charleton (Supernova Research at the University of Southampton)

A supernova is created when a star explodes brilliantly and brightly, exploding so energetically, that they can be seen billions of miles away.
Today we will explore how astronomers detect these SUPER events, how the heavier elements, that comprise everything from cars to the human body, are formed; and how cosmologists use them to study the true nature of the universe itself.

Photo by Enrico Bellodi on Pexels

The Tale of Merging Galaxies. Cosmic Crashes and Galactic “Death”

Anna Puglisi (Lecturer in Astronomy)

When we borrow the powerful eye of a large telescope to look at the night sky, we discover that the Universe is full of galaxies: spirals, rounder ellipticals, and stranger shapes in between.
These are not static islands. Galaxies grow, change, and sometimes...collide. This is the tale of how galaxies are shaped across cosmic time, and what happens when two galaxies crash into each other.
We will tour the cosmic crash site with modern observatories and see how these encounters can help explain why some galaxies are still bustling with star formation while others are "dead", one of the biggest mysteries in the evolution of galaxies.

Image by Yol Gezer on Pixabay

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