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Mars Missions 2021: Early Discoveries

Three new missions arrived at Mars in 2021. This lecture looks at new results from the UAE’s Hope mission, China’s Tianwen-1 and NASA’s Perseverence.

The Barbican Centre at 40 - Past, Present and Future

Nicholas Kenyon looks back at the development of one of the most distinctive buildings of our time, shedding new light on its origins, looking at the changes across the years, and considers the thinking that will guide its renewal for the next 40 years.

Caroline Herschel: Discoverer of Comets

In this talk Dr Sheila Kanani combines the story of a pioneering woman astronomer, with an account of the science behind comets, asteroids and meteors.

The Astronomer and the Witch: Kepler’s Mother

In 1615 Katharina Kepler, illiterate mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler, was accused of being a witch. At that time in Germany, there was a witch ‘craze’. Over half of the c.50,000 executions in Europe for witchcraft between 1500 and 1700 took place in Germany.

Cosmic Vision: Space-Quakes

When black holes merge, the world shakes. Such quakes in space-time are now detectable and indeed the detection of such gravitational waves from cosmic coalescences comprises an entirely new type of astronomy that is completely independent of light itself.