Talk & Discussion

super/collider: Champagne Supernova

26 May 2015

 / 5:00pm to 8:00pm
 / Free

The first in a new series of super-collider events at Second Home, Champagne Supernova will combine two nice things: a glass of bubbly, and talks by Dr Steve Fossey and Dr Andrew Gregory.

Dr Andrew Gregory will tell us of the 1054 supernova which was observed and recorded by Chinese astronomers and by some other cultures around the world. This talk investigates the recording of the 1054 supernova and the cultural importance it had in the societies that recorded it and investigates why this phenomenon went virtually unrecorded in the Western tradition.

We will also be hearing from Dr Steve Fossey, an astronomer based at UCL’s teaching observatory in NW London. In January 2014, during a routine telescope demonstration, Steve and his students were astonished to serendipitously discover a bright supernova – the closest in a generation – in the nearby galaxy known as Messier 82 (the ‘Cigar Galaxy’). This is the story of that night and its aftermath: the race to report, and recent results that promise fresh insight into the nature of these cosmologically significant stellar explosions.

Find out more here:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/phys/news/physics-news-public

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-2586

Talk organised with Super Collider.

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