Astro-Expo Evening
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"Faster Than Light: Was Einstein Wrong?"
In September 2011, a group of scientists announced that they had observed subatomic particles seemingly travelling at speeds greater than the speed of light in vacuum. The finding has been met with great scepticism as it appears to be in conflict with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. This lecture will describe the experiment and explain the grounds for scepticism.
If it turns out that neutrinos can accelerate beyond light speed, it will open up a whole new world of physics - maybe even delving into the strange concepts of other dimensions and time travel!
In the headline talk of the Astro-Expo, Dr Cormac O'Raifeartaigh of Waterford IT will explore the experiment that revealed these strange results, telling us how it happened, how the issue can be resolved, and what it could mean for science.
Listen to Dr O'Raifeartaigh speak on Today With Pat Kenny HERE, where he talks about the Theory of Relativity and the CERN neutrinos.
This is proving to be a very popular topic, so find out more and book tickets to the talk HERE.
"The Complete Amateur Solar Observatory" by Dave
Gradwell
Dave Gradwell has been observing the Sun for many years and
his solar images are known worldwide. From his observatory near Birr he observes
many aspects of solar activity, all of which are in reach of the amateur. This
year he has accurately predicted three occurrences of the Northern Lights
over Ireland. In this talk he will explain how to observe the Sun through
telescopes, capture solar flares as they happen, and observe the effect of the
Sun's magnetic field on the Earth and as a result predict occurrences of the
Northern Lights.