[AstroNet] What's up the Observatory this Saturday

[Thembela Mantungwa]

S.A. Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town will host a free public lecture by Dr. Petri Vaisanen on Saturday, October 8 at 20h00. The title of his talk is "Quasars, starbursts, and other extreme explosions in the Universe" There will be stargazing after the talk if the weather is good. 

Petri studies galaxies for a living, using the largest telescopes on the planet. He is originally from Finland, he moved to Cape Town with his family 7 years ago, to work for the SALT project. 

Abstract: 
Quasars, starbursts, and other extreme explosions in the Universe - 

We live in a galaxy, the Milky Way, and there a billions of other galaxies in the Universe. At the centre of our Milky Way lurks a fairly benevolent super-massive black hole, but many other galaxies host extremely active nuclei (AGN), super-massive black holes gone violent. Many galaxies collide, like ours will in some billions of years, producing spectacular starbursts, cosmic fireworks, and also feed the central monsters in the process. Whole galaxies change and evolve because of these explosions and collisions. But how exactly? How do starbursts and massive black holes interact, what triggers the explosions? And does this relate to life somehow..? 



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Regards 

Thembela Mantungwa 
S.A. Astronomical Observatory 
Tel: 021 460 9319 
Fax: 086 612 7502 
Mob: 071 105 0109 
Email: tm at saao.ac.za 
Website: www.saao.ac.za / www.salt.ac.za 


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