Colloquium – Let´s talk Astrophysics

moderated by Dr. Ioannis Kamaretsos (Volkssternwarte München)

Friday, 20. June 2025, 8pm
Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h, 81671 München

This is part of a lecture series on selected topics in Astrophysics. Let us become acquainted with discoveries in Astrophysics. The focus is on the ideas and theory behind the published work.

Following a 50min lecture, we will continue with discussions.

Event topic: ‚Exploding‘ stars and T Coronae Borealis: Can you predict the next outburst? T Coronae Borealis, a.k.a. the „Blaze Star“, is a recurrent Nova located in the constellation Northern Crown. It is a binary system which undergoes huge brightness increases every ca 80 years, making it a unique astronomical event.

Image: handmadewriting

Free entry
Advance booking recommended; limited number of seats.

Tickets

Colloquium – Let´s talk Astrophysics

moderated by Dr. Ioannis Kamaretsos (Volkssternwarte München)

Tuesday, 27. Mai 2025, 8pm
Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h, 81671 München

This is a reoccurring colloquium, on slightly more advanced topics in Astrophysics. Let us become acquainted with important scientific discoveries. The focus is on the ideas and theory behind the published work.

Following a 45min lecture, we will continue with discussions.

Event topic: Light deflection by Gravity.

Case 1: The Einstein ring of galaxy NGC6505

Case 2: Multiple images of a distant Supernova

Image: handmadewriting

Free entry
Advance booking recommended; limited number of seats.

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The Most Distant Planetary Probes to leave Earth

Lecture in English by Paul Salazar (Munich Public Observatory)

Friday, 6 June 2025, 8 p.m.
Venue: Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

Humans have pushed the frontiers of exploration in space by sending probes to the edge of our Solar System and beyond. Just how far have we traveled, and what have we seen along the way? How do we keep in touch with the most distant objects, and what is left to learn from these probes? We will look at the very old Pioneer and Voyager missions past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as well as the New Horizons mission past Pluto and into the Kuiper Belt.

credits: curiousmatrix.com

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⇒ deutsche Version des Vortrags 4 Wochen später am Freitag, 4. Juli, um 20 Uhr!

Astrophotography – Journey and Techniques

Lecture in English by Egor Goryachev (Astrophotographer)

Friday, 23 Mai 2025, 8 p.m.

As many of us live in big cities, we can’t even see the stars and the Milky Way from our neighbourhoods as light pollution obstructs our view. Africa and Namibia in particular, is one of the sparsely populated areas of the world where the impact of light pollution is minimal. You don’t have to climb high into the mountains to chase the Milky Way. Even on the flat surface of Africa, you can see thousands of stars on a clear night. And what you see is incredible. Over the last 3 years I have explored many different places in Namibia. Spending the night under the stars is a great experience that you want to repeat again and again.

If the skies are clear, guests are invited to visit our rooftop observatory after the talk and enjoy the views with our telescopes.

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Our Astrochemical Origins

Lecture in English

by Prof. Dr. Paola Caselli (Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

Friday, 11 April 2025, 8 p.m.
Venue: Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

Our Solar System was born from a dark and cold cloud made out of gas and small dust particles. Thanks to powerful telescopes, we can now study in detail these clouds, their chemical ingredients, and their evolution toward stars and planets. We can then reconstruct our origins. In this lecture, I’ll present a journey through space and time starting from interstellar clouds and ending in our Solar System. The dawn of organic molecules, the formation of stars and planets, and the first steps towards life will be unveiled.

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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The Twin Paradox and its resolution

Lecture in English

Boris Lohner (Munich Public Observatory)

Friday, 21 March 2025, 8 p.m.
Venue: Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

Explanations of the twin paradox sometimes give the impression that special relativity is defective and that this „defect“ requires general relativity to be „repaired“ – or give the impression that time dilation is not real but a mere effect of observation. In this talk it is shown how the twin paradox can be resolved in a consistent way while staying within special relativity.

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⇒ deutsche Version des Vortrags am Freitag, 14. März, um 20 Uhr!

From Dust to Giants: Planet formation in our Solar system and abroad

Lecture in English by Dr. Alexander Cridland (USM, LMU)

Friday, 28 February 2025, 8 p.m.
Venue: Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

The birth and early growth of planets, often called their ‚formation‘, involves a wide range of physical processes that turns the tiniest grain of dust to the largest planets we can find. In this lecture I will take you through these processes as we build up planetary systems, including ours, from the material leftover from long dead stars. These models of planet formation have been developing for over 50 years but it was the last 10-20 years that has seen important, data-driven breakthroughs thanks to the discovery of the first planets outside our Solar system. The characterization of these extra-solar planets (or exoplanets for short) have allowed for the first statistical studies of planet formation as we try to recreate the population of known exoplanetary systems. These studies not only teach us about the underlying physics that lead to the growth of planets outside our Solar system, but helps us understand our own place in the cosmos.

Image credits: ESO

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Colloquium – Let´s talk Astrophysics

moderated by Dr. Ioannis Kamaretsos (Volkssternwarte München)

Tuesday, 11. March 2025, 6:30pm
Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h, 81671 München

This is a reoccuring colloquium, on advanced topics in Astrophysics and relevant philosophical concepts.
Let us have a discussion group, dealing with important scientific discoveries as well as with open problems, yet without going into historical aspects.
Special attention will be paid to publications that have paved the path to modern Physics and Astrophysics, such as those by A. Einstein, A. Eddington, H. Poincaré, R. Penrose, R.H. Dicke, V. Rubin, S. Chandrasekhar, and others.

Second topic: The path from Special Theory of Relativity to Einsteinian Gravity

Image: handmadewriting

Free entry
Advance booking recommended; limited number of seats.

Tickets

Our Astrochemical Origins – Abgesagt/Canceled

Our Astrochemical Origins – Canceled

Lecture in English

by Prof. Dr. Paola Caselli (Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)

~~Friday, 15 November 2024, 8 p.m.~~
All tickets remain valid. You can cancel your tickets free of charge.
We will inform you by e-mail when the rescheduled date with Prof. Dr. Casselli is fixed.
Venue: Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

Our Solar System was born from a dark and cold cloud made out of gas and small dust particles. Thanks to powerful telescopes, we can now study in detail these clouds, their chemical ingredients, and their evolution toward stars and planets. We can then reconstruct our origins. In this lecture, I’ll present a journey through space and time starting from interstellar clouds and ending in our Solar System. The dawn of organic molecules, the formation of stars and planets, and the first steps towards life will be unveiled.

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Planetary Exploration

Lecture in English by Paul Salazar (Munich Public Observatory)

Friday, 8 November 2024, 8 p.m.
Venue: Volkssternwarte München, Rosenheimer Str. 145h

Humankind has been exploring the Solar System for 50 years. What have we learned in that time, and what do we expect to discover in current and future missions? This talk will review missions and provide a view toward the future of planetary exploration, both robotic and human.

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⇒ deutsche Version des Vortrags 3 Wochen später am Freitag, 29. November, um 20 Uhr!