Old Dunelmian returns to give astronomy lecture
(14 May 2010)
On Tuesday 11 May former pupil Professor Derek Ward-Thompson (OD), now an astronomer based at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Cardiff, gave a fascinating talk to the Tristram Society the subject of which was ‘First results from the European Space Agency’s Herschel Infrared Telescope’. The photo shows Professor Ward-Thompson (right) with Head of Physics John Curry who taught Professor Ward-Thompson when he was a pupil here and who retires this summer after 37 years' service to Durham School.We were treated to an insight into the design, launch and first images from the recently launched European IR telescope. Prof. Ward-Thompson then told us about the search for material from which stars might be born, the evidence for star formation and the possible site of one region where planets might be being formed now from the condensation of gaseous material around a star in Epsilon Eridani.
Overall we gained a greater appreciation of the problems caused by turbulence whether that be in weather forecasting or seeing through the smoke to understand how turbulent gaseous matter forms stars. There appears to be a vacancy for someone - it could be you - to develop a ‘turbulence theory’, allied to chaos theory, that a wide range of scientific disciplines would welcome. Perhaps that future theorist was in the audience . . .!
Durham School's Tristram Society was named after a distinguished former pupil Canon Henry Baker Tristram FRS. For more details on his life and career see: http://www.dur.ac.uk/parish.stmary/the_residents
/tristram.htm.
next event
SMT Meeting
Thursday, 09 September 2010
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