Atoms to galaxies at home

The Sun is an active star that produces the light and heat that makes life possible here on Earth. From time to time it produces eruptions of hot gas that can travel though the solar system and impact the Earth, producing beautiful displays of the aurora borealis. In February 2020, NASA launched the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft to give us a better understanding of solar activity and how it can affect us here on Earth. In this talk, Peter will describe Solar Orbiter and how Irish scientists will use it to give us a better understanding of the Sun and its impacts on Earth.

John will take you on a whistle-stop tour of our Universe. He'll begin with a review of the first few seconds of our Universe and take us all the way through the main events of the Universe's 14 billion year history. He'll discuss some of the greatest mysteries of our Universe including dark matter and dark energy - together they make up 95% of our Universe but for which we have been unable to make any observation!

The Universe emits many different types of light, many of which we can't see with the naked eye. Scientists build telescopes in order to detect all these types of light in order to see an otherwise invisible Universe. Ciara will tell you all about how, in Ireland, we are detecting radio waves from all types of astronomical wonders and how this is helping us unveil some of the secrets about our solar system and beyond.