Our next event will take place on Monday 27 June at Grandcafé de Burcht (Burgsteeg 14, 2312 JS Leiden) at 20:00 CEST! Join us for a night of astronomy with two fantastic talks from Gael Chauvin and Kate Follette who will tell us all about discovering exoplanets, and understanding how they are made and what they look like. As always, there will be fun games where you could win cool science prizes!

Gaël Chauvin: "Imaging New Worlds"

Gael is an Astrophysicist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France working at the Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange of the Côte d'Azur Observatory. His research activities are devoted to imaging and characterizing new worlds, and in particular to the study of exoplanets, their physical and atmospheric characterization and more globally, the study of the formation, the evolution and the architecture of planetary systems. In his talk, he will briefly highlight the key technological milestones and breakthrough discoveries of the past decades in the specific context of the direct imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets. He will then present the main scientific programs driving the development of these giants and of their instrumentation roadmap that will operate and observe in concert with other ground-based facilities and space missions.

Kate Follette: "Taking Planets' Baby Pictures"

Kate is an assistant professor at Amherst College. She works to "de-twinkle" stars, allowing for super sharp images of young planetary systems. This enables her to find and study young planets (she especially likes ones still in the process of forming - "proto"planets) and to study the ways that they interact with their environments. In her talk, Kate will tell us about why the few dozen planets that have been found through imaging are the best and most exciting of all exoplanet discoveries.

Logistical information: We start at 20:00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the bar, save a seat, and grab a drink. We are not planning to stream the event live, but will be uploading a recording of the talks on our YouTube channel after the event.

Join us for an evening of astronomy and fun games where you could win cool science prizes!

For more information check out http://astronomyontap.nl/