January 2011 NUI Galway Observatory Open Nights

NUI Galway's Centre of Astronomy is once again opening its doors for their annual series of public lectures. The first lecture in this series, entitled How to make (and break) a star, will take place at 7pm on Wednesday February 2nd in the Larmor Lecture theatre. The lecture will be given by NUI Galway's Dr Matt Redman from the Centre of Astronomy, School of Physics at NUI Galway, and will explore the life cycle of stars focussing on the way they are formed from enormous, bitterly cold dark clouds to their often spectacular ultimate destruction in supernova and other explosions. Aimed at a general audience, the talk will be illustrated with many tunning images from observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory s Very Large Telescope. Dr Redman's research looks at the conditions around the birth of stars. His talk will also encompass the work of other members of the Centre of Astronomy. Speaking about the upcoming open evenings and lecture series, Dr Andrew Shearer, Director of the Centre of Astronomy, NUI Galway, said: "We are happy to start this years series of public lectures with Dr Matt Redman talk on the life of stars. We have planned five talks on different aspects of astronomy and are suitable for all. We are happy to showcase our work and thus illustrate the contribution NUI Galway makes to the public understanding of science." More details of all the talks can be found on http://astro.nuigalway.ie. -Ends-