More than a billion years ago, two black holes collided. In the final second of their long life together, the black holes banged out a rhythm like mallets on a drum, creating gravitational waves – ripples in the shape of spacetime. One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of such waves, though it seemed improbable – if not outright impossible – that we’d ever be able to actually detect them. They were long considered too faint for any earthbound experiment to measure.

The Department of Physics invites faculty, students and the public to its 42nd annual celebration of physics. The Welsh Lectures in Physics have been held annually since 1975 in honour of H.L. Welsh, a distinguished former faculty member in the Physics Department. They are the major public event in the life of the Department of Physics and are intended to celebrate discoveries in physics and their wider impact. They are intended to be broadly accessible to an audience drawn from across the university, other academic institutions and the interested public.

Speaker: Dr. Parshati Patel, Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, Western University Massive stars, young or old, are interesting celestial objects with fascinating mysteries. In this talk, we will explore some of the mysteries of the disks around massive stars and how their formation, dissipation and structure affect our understanding of not only the planet formation but also the star formation process.

We have evidence that billions of years ago the universe we live in was much smaller in size. This evidence comes in the form of light that has been travelling for about 13 billion years. In this talk Darsh Kodwani will describe how we have come to understand this light and why we believe this would imply that the universe started in a big bang. Even though the evidence for the big bang is very strong we do not believe it can be the full story of the universe.

It is commonly believed that Mars is a cold, dry place. Due in large part to orbital imagery and robotic exploration of the Martian surface we can say without a doubt that Mars is indeed dry. The temperature on Mars is a bit more complex. As is the case with Earth, Mars experiences seasons and one would likely prefer to vacation near the tropics during winter. Temperature swings are much larger on Mars than on Earth. So while it may reach 20°C at noon near the equator during the Martian summer, by midnight it might plummet to -60°C.

This spring, SkyShed is launching POD MAX, a “mid sized” observatory at 12.5' in diameter, and the POD MAX funding program – The Starships Project. Wayne will be focusing on these endeavors and how they will further aid the astro community, and STEM education. Wayne Parker When not performing as the bassist in Glass Tiger, Wayne spends his time pursuing his other passion – Astronomy.

“The most incomprehensible thing about the Universe is that it is comprehensible.” — Albert Einstein

Everyone is invited to join us and Durham Skies on May 19 for stargazing at the edge of Lake Ontario. Take a free look through different kinds of telescopes to get close-up views of craters on the Moon and spectacular Jupiter! Learn the names of the stars of spring and the constellation patterns they form. Peer deep into space and try your hand at spotting faint star clusters and nebulae. You can even bring your own telescope along and we'll give you advice on how to use it better.

Join us for our monthly recreational astronomy night meeting. This is where our members get to show their latest projects, or give tutorials and tips on just about everything to do with Astronomy. Talks start at 7:30, socializing starts at 7:00.

This event has been postponed to the fall. A new date will be set at a later time.