For details, please refer to the Chinese version

For details, please refer to the Chinese version

For details, please refer to the Chinese version

Our Milky Way is one of the billions of galaxies in the universe. At around 13.6 billion years old, the Milky Way is a large spiral system consisting of over a hundred billion stars, and with large pivoting arms stretching out across the sky. Among its four arms, the major arms consist of the highest densities of both young and old stars while the minor arms are primarily filled with gas and pockets of star-forming activity.

Stars' composition and age were somehow mysterious in the past and their related study was difficult when limited source of reference was on hand. With the advancement of technology, the study of stars has made significant progress since the nineties. One of such new technologies is the ground-breaking space telescopes operated in Gaia mission which was launched in 2013 by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Gaia Mission maps out the exact positions and distances of more than 1 billion stars, as well as their light spectra. The information not only enables scientists and astronomers to understand the stars' composition and age, but also to determine the speeds and directions that the stars move in the sky. Given celestial objects follow predictable trajectories, the paths of the stars across billions of years – from the past to the future – can be reconstructed. Combining the reconstructed trajectories into one stellar movie would help us to capture the evolution of our Milky Way Galaxy through the ages.

Speakers:
Professor Michael Perryman (2022 Shaw Laureate in Astronomy) and
Professor Chu Ming-chung (Choh-Ming Li Professor of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Moderator: Professor Quentin Parker (Professor, Faculty of Science and Director, Laboratory for Space Research, The University of Hong Kong)

For details, please refer to the Chinese version

Mirrors are at the “heart” of all astronomical telescopes and are the important tools for astronomers to make discoveries in our cosmos. Mr. Glen Cole was the former Chief Engineer for Mirror Polishing of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In this lecture, he will introduce the behind-the-scene stories of the creations of the “heart” of this greatest space observatory in the world. He will be sharing with us the beauty and challenges of JWST mirror making. If you are telescope lovers, you will not be disappointed about this lecture as the stories cannot be found elsewhere.

Speaker: Mr. Glen Cole (Former Chief Engineer for Mirror Polishing, JWST)

For details, please refer to the Chinese version

Session 1: Spacecraft from the Earth

For details, please refer to the Chinese version