Astronomy in your home

By: Celeste Burgos Badal / ceburgos@astro-udec.cl
/ Images kindly provided by Astronomy UdeC
Cover by Yan Bethermy – Unsplash.com
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Within the scope of the Anillo Project “Formation and Growth of Supermassive Black Holes,” the Department of Astronomy at the Universidad de Concepción, in conjunction with the Pontificia Universidad Católica and the Universidad de Valparaíso, decided to continue sharing the astronomic sciences digitally. The “Astronomy in your home” initiative is a series of online talks shared through the project’s YouTube channel.

The initiative, led by specialists within the Supermassive Black Holes’ Project, was designed to occupy the evenings we now spend in isolation due to the Coronavirus emergency. For half an hour, a scientist gives a presentation and then opens up the talk for conversation with users, who can ask questions through a live chat.

The initiative has seen excellent adoption, reaching close to 11,000 views and more than 1,500 subscriptions from viewers interested in astronomy. Users can connect to watch the talks every Friday at 7:00 pm through the YouTube channel “Proyecto Anillo Agujero Negros Supermasivos.”

The cycle began on Friday March 27^th with the talk “Crash of galaxies,” given by Dr. Ezequiel Treister, an astronomer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica. This talk discussed the collision of galaxies and the future waiting for the Milky Way, among other topics. On Friday April 3^rd, UdeC astronomer Dr. Neil Nagar gave the talk “The first photograph of a black hole.” This talk related the story behind capturing the first image of a black hole.

One week later, the evenings of astronomy continued with Patricia Arévalo, an astronomer from the Universidad de Valparaíso. She gave the talk titled “What do black holes eat?” This talk revealed unknown aspects related to the existence of black holes under study. 

Friday April 17^th saw discussion on the expansion of the universe. The talk, titled “From the Big Bang to the accelerated expansion of the universe,” was given by Dr. Dominik Schleicher, a UdeC researcher and Director of the Anillo Project Supermassive Black Holes. Dr. Schleicher provided insights on evidence for the Big Bang and on measuring the distances of the universe.

After this, Yara Jaffé, an astronomer from the Universidad de Valparaíso, gave the talk “The social life of galaxies,” sharing knowledge about the evolution of galaxies and interactions between galaxies.

On Friday May 1^st, Dr. Gaspar Galaz of the Pontificia Universidad Católica gave the talk titled “The scale of the universe in 45 minutes and 600 cm².” This talk touched on the paradox of the universe being full of matter but having zero density.

It is important to mention that this initiative by Chilean astronomers has pioneered the use of distance-learning tools to continue sharing science during the pandemic. Due to its success, “Astronomy in your home” will continue preparing more talks for the community.

More information: dschleicher@astro-udec.cl