Professor Tom Ray will talk about the birth of our solar system in the School of Physics & Astronomy's 12th annual Bolton Lecture on 18 October 2011.
Professor Ray studied at Trinity College Dublin before working at Jodrell Bank, the University of Manchester, the University of Sussex and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. Tom is currently Professor of Astrophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies specialising in star formation. He still recalls visiting the Careers Guidance Teacher in school to be asked what he "would like to be?" When he said an astronomer he was told "Yes that is fine, but what real job would you like?"
In a lecture entitled The First Three Million Years, Professor Ray will explore what we now know about the birth of our solar system. The picture we have is highly dramatic: supersonic jets that stretch for tens of light-years, disks that give birth to gas giants like Jupiter and lowly rocky planets like ours as well as bursts of energy allowing a young star to temporarily outshine its neighbours for hundreds of years.
The lecture will take place on Tuesday 18 October at 5.30-6.30pm in Conference Auditorium 2 (building 100 on the campus map)
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