ASA 2007

THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
OF AUSTRALIA INC.

Annual Scientific Meeting
1st to 5th July, 2007

Public Talk

The Harley Wood Lecture is an annual astronomy talk open to the public, which is held during the ASA meeting. In 2007 the lecture will be given by:

Matthew Bailes

Director of the Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing

Millisecond Pulsars and Einstein's Universe

Using 3D virtual reality technologies Professor Bailes will explain how astronomers are using giant radio telescopes to discover millisecond pulsars, objects only 20km in diameter, but with masses some 500,000 times that of Earth. These stars rotate up to 700 times a second, and emit powerful beams of radio emission. Australian astronomers are using millisecond pulsars to test Einstein's laws of gravitation and search for gravitational waves produced by inspiralling supermassive black holes. This talk is aimed at the general public and understandable by children and adults alike. The impact of exciting new telescopes currently being designed for construction in Western Australia will also be discussed.

Speaker Biography

Professor Matthew Bailes is the Director of the Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. He has been involved in the discovery of over 200 radio pulsars, enigmatic objects that occupy our Galaxy. The Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing is a passionate supporter of public outreach and in 2006 Professor Bailes was invited to tour the Netherlands and gave a series of public lectures there on Australian astronomy and in particular pulsars.

Date and Venue

Monday July 2nd, 7:00pm - 8:30pm.
Mason Theatre, Building E7B

A large campus map showing the location of Building E7B is available here.

A flyer to publicise this event is available here (pdf file).

For further information (and additions or corrections), contact: alanv@physics.mq.edu.au