The Department of Physics at the University of Surrey are hosting a public event on the evening of the 29th October. This event is to celebrate International Dark Matter Day. Children, families and adults all welcome…everyone who wants to explore the world and space around us.

There will be a selection of short talks by lecturers in the physics department about their exciting cutting edge research and how it is allowing us to see the unseen. Including one all about the recent Nobel prize award.

There will be

interactive stands you can tour around where researchers, and students will be on hand to show you demos and talk to you about exciting physics ideas. These topics will range from quantum physics to medical applications as well as lots about mysterious Dark Matter.

Exciting addition to this event – tours of the Surrey Space Centre.

Starting in 1979, pioneering small satellite activities, the Surrey Space Centre has gone on to push the boundaries of low cost small satellite applications and g

enerated leading research. This is a chance to see inside a world leading Centre of Excellence in Space Engineering. Explore the mission control and clean room. These tours need to be booked on to

Public Talks program LTD

17.40 “Zombie degenerate stars: what can we learn from the stellar graveyard?” Dr Arnau Rios Huguet

White dwarfs and neutron stars are fascinating astrophysical bodies, leftovers of explosions that occur at the end of a star’s life. Compared to other stellar objects, they are extremely dim – hence the term “zombie stars”. They may be dead, but their corpses do tell us a great deal about nuclear and atomic physics, general relativity and cosmology. In this talk, we will discuss their discovery, their astrophysical properties and the Nobel-prize-winning ideas that helped physicists dissect these outstanding interstellar cadavers.

18.15 “Who, why, where, what is dark matter?” Dr Denis Erkal

I will begin with a historical overview of dark matter, covering the key historical figures and the reasons why we believe dark matter exists. I will then move on to more recent work measuring the precise shape of dark matter in our Galaxy and how clumpy it is. I will then end with a discussion about what dark matter might be.

18.50 “Extreme Light and the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics” Prof Jeremy Allam

Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou shared in this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their invention of a method to produce laser pulses of extremely high intensity and extremely short duration. But what’s the big deal with short, intense light pulses? How are they produced? And what’s the connection with birdsong?? All will be revealed in this talk, which is aimed at a non-expert audience. Find out how to use a laser to sculpt a live human eyeball, or to recreate the inside of a star within a laboratory.

19.25 “Cleaning up Space; the Remove Debris Mission….” Richard Duke

Above our heads 7000 tonnes of Space Junk orbits and threatens satellites and astronauts working in space. Find out what impacts this has to our society and what could happen if we do nothing. Introducing the University’s Remove Debris spacecraft. Launched from the space station, it is the first mission in the world to demonstrate how to clean up space! Currently in orbit performing experiments, find out about our Space Harpoon, our clever fishing net and how we will sail the spacecraft back to Earth at the end of the mission!

20.00 “Shining a light on direct dark matter searches” Dr Dan Doherty

20.35 “Did dark matter kill the dinosaurs?” Dr Michelle Collins

Sixty five million years ago, a comet struck the Earth, and wiped out the dinosaurs. But was this just bad luck, or was it a cosmic conspiracy? In this talk, I’ll tell you about a new theory which suggests that the dark matter in our Galaxy could be responsible for this catastrophic extinction. I’ll also discuss whether or not our astronomical observations support this theory, and what this means for not only the dinosaurs, but life on Earth in general.

More info contact Dr Heather Campbell: h.campbell@surrey.ac.uk

Book tickets:   https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seeing-the-unseen-tickets-50690043284 

8630-1018 Seeing the Unseen_Poster