EXPLAINING THE UNIVERSE --- ASTRO-EXPO 2005 "Black Holes - the Irish Connection", "EINSTEIN", and a complete description of how the universe works by Prof Stephen Hawking's only Irish student will feature amongst six talks all about space and the universe in Dublin this weekend. Astro-Expo is the biggest space event in Ireland every year. Astronomy Ireland invites kids and the general public to come along to 6 fascinating talks spread over two days, Saturday and Sunday November 19 and 20 in "The Hub" in Dublin City University The event runs from 12noon to 6pm with 3 talks on each day as follows: Saturday November 19: "Black Holes - The Irish Connection" by Prof. Mike Redfern "String Theory Cosmology" by Dr. Oisin MacConamha (Stephen Hawking's student) "Comets in the Classroom and Other Tales from Texas" by Larry Barr, Texas Planetarium Director, U.S.A. Sunday November 20: "Einstein and the Cosmos" by Dr Aidan Smoker, UCD. "Selling Science" by Ash McFadden, Inishowen Planetarium, Donegal. "Galaxy Classification System" by Allan Trow, University of Glamorgan, Wales. EVERYONE IS WELCOME - BRING THE WHOLE FAMILY There will also be a huge exhibition running on the 2 days with the biggest display of telescopes ever seen in Ireland and lots more besides - see website A special feature will be the Mars RoverBot Challenge - a huge interactive display from the U.K. for kids to land a spacecraft on Mars!!! See http://case.glam.ac.uk/CASE/Projects/BCR.html for some idea of what it's all about - THIS IS A MAJOR EXHIBIT FOR IRELAND SO DO NOT MISS IT! ADMISSION TO THE EXHIBITION IS FREE AND THE TALKS ARE KIDS3EURO & ADULTS5EURO (OR DAY PASS FOR 10EURO) FULL DETAILS ON www.astronomy.ie (broadcast media: please pronounce this " ASTRONOMY DOT I E " )