Abstract:
Astronomers can be frustrated by bad weather and day-light when trying to make observations of celestial sources. Within the last 20 years a series of satellites have been launched allowing astronomers to obtain virtually uninterrupted observations of stars lasting months or even years. I will outline some of the results from these observations which have allowed us to probe into the core of stars and the discovery of thousands of planets orbiting other stars.
Bio:
Gavin obtained his PhD in X-ray observations of accreting binary stars from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Lab, after which he spent two years at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Returning to MSSL for more than ten years, he then moved to Armagh Observatory. His interests include accreting binaries, stellar activity, transients and exo-planets and uses multi-wavelength observations from radio to X-ray bands. He is the Community Scientist for ESA’s Plato mission due to be launched early in 2027.

 Constructing the largest telescope in the World, bigger than the Colosseum and high up in the Andes Mountain, has proven to be challenging. It is however already well on its way and promises us images of Earth-like planets around nearby stars, the ability to search for signs of life in their atmospheres and an understanding of how the first galaxies formed.

In this talk, Professor Tom Ray, President of the European Southern Observatory, will explain how engineers and astronomers have overcome the difficulties in building such a colossus and what it can do to help us unravel the birth of the Universe and address the age-old question of whether we are alone.