Space Wars

Sci-fi fans will be pleased to know that researchers are constantly exploring the potential for humans to live on other plants, including one of our nearest neighbours Mars.  Come along to this talk to find out how Alan is working with the City of Culture and Coventry Libraries to utilise LEGO Serious Play and LEGO Mindstorms to explore opportunities for travel to the red planet.

Who would win in a fight between a lion and the Sun? Obviously, the Sun - it's massive! So the real question is, how many lions would it take for it to be a fair fight? We'll guide you through a journey of feline-themed astrophysics as we explore the science governing lion proto-stars and extreme scale cat-aclysmic collisions. We'll be answering questions such as: how big would our lion star actually have to be? Could we sunbathe under its light? And could it be a renewable resource of the future? Prepare for a rawsome adventure from the depths of the Savanna to the far reaches of space.

We now know that planets commonly occur around stars like our Sun, but in about five billion years, our Sun will run out of fuel and die. Unlike the death of a large star, there will be no violent supernova explosion. So what will happen? Matthew will describe the evolution of sun-like stars off of the 'Main Sequence', through a red giant phase, and into a cooling white dwarf. He will also discuss what happens to planetary systems during a star's evolution, including the detection of planetary material around white dwarf stars.