Our next event will take place on Monday 28 September at 20:00 in Grand Café De Burcht (Burgsteeg 14, 2312 JS Leiden). Join us for an evening of informal astronomy and great beer! Sebastiaan Zoutendijk will tell us about the nature of dark matter and Matthew Kenworthy will teach us how astronomers take pictures of planets around other stars.

Sebastiaan Zoutendijk: "Dark matter in the smallest galaxies"

Bas Zoutendijk is a PhD student at Leiden Observatory. He studies the fundamental properties of the Universe through observations with telescopes. He is currently working on a better understanding of dark matter. This substance is a very abundant and important part of the Universe, but its nature remains a mystery. In this talk, Bas will tell how astronomers use the smallest galaxies to shed light on dark matter.

Matthew Kenworthy: "Two distant wanderers: how to take pictures of planets around other stars"

Matthew Kenworthy is an associate professor at the Leiden Observatory. He has spent over a decade looking for planets around other stars, has found comets orbiting other stars and giant ring systems casting shadows through the galaxy. Thousands of planets have been discovered around stars other than our Sun - but we've only taken pictures of barely a dozen of them. In his talk, Matthew will talk about how they take pictures of planets around other stars, and how they found not one but two planets orbiting around a very young version of our Sun, and what they hope to learn in next few decades by taking pictures of planets with bigger and bigger telescopes.

Important information: All ages and backgrounds welcome! The entry is free but registration is required due to COVID-19 regulations set in place! By signing up, you are agreeing to follow the 1.5 metre social distancing rules, will not attend if you have any symptoms and will clean your hands upon arrival at De Burcht (disinfectant will be provided). Attendance is on the understanding that we have put in place meeting protocols yet cannot guarantee no risk of possible coronavirus infection. Due to the limited space, if you have registered but can no longer attend the event, please get in contact with us as soon as possible to allow other interested persons to attend.

We start at 20h but recommend you arrive early to save a seat and grab a drink. And of course, beside the talks, we will have fun games where you can win cool science prizes! More info: check out www.astronomyontap.nl!