The Multicolour Universe
Cunard Insights Programme Lecture
Schools’ version given at the Cambridge Science Festival Schools’ Hub (01/03/2012)
The night sky is our window onto the whole Universe. In this talk we go on a whistle-stop tour of all of astronomy! I talk about how studying the night sky using light of different colours (even colours the human eye cannot see), we can learn about planets, stars, galaxies and even some more exotic phenomena and how we can travel back in time to learn about the beginnings of the Universe.
Further Reading
The Cosmic Century – M. Longair, 2006, Cambridge University Press
Our Cosmic Habitat – M. Rees, 2001, Phoenix
The schools’ version of this talk is for KS3 students (separate groups of years 7, 8 and 9). This talk links ideas about waves, light, electromagnetism and chemistry to how we can see and learn about the universe around us, from stars and galaxies to more exotic phenomena like radio galaxies, pulsars and black holes.