Quench your thirst for astronomy! On Friday, November 10, at The Great Hall! It'll be another fun evening of pints, astronomy news, mind-expanding talks, games, prizes, and Dunlap merchandise for sale! Plus, following all the talks, there will be plenty of time for you to have all your cosmic questions answered by astronomers from the University of Toronto.

Most of our Universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy, but so far scientists have had a hard time detecting or explaining them. PhD student Alexandra Terrana explores some of the big open questions in cosmology, what dark matter and energy are, and how an alternative theory of gravity might solve these mysteries. Chronicles of a Peculiar Universe is a series of talks presented in collaboration with York University's Faculty of Science.

Since 1995 thousands of planets have been detected orbiting other stars. Many of these worlds could possibly contain liquid water and even life. Professor Paul Delaney describes our current understanding of exoplanets, the ongoing search for them and the implications for the search for life. Chronicles of a Peculiar Universe is a series of talks presented in collaboration with York University's Faculty of Science.

Most galaxies enjoy the company of other galaxies and organize into various shapes known as the "cosmic web." Many of them also like to spin - creating beautiful disks of stars and gas. PhD student George Conidis examines our own galaxy, The Milky Way, and its friends to better understand the social habits of disk galaxies and how they spin. Chronicles of a Peculiar Universe is a series of talks presented in collaboration with York University's Faculty of Science.

One century following Einstein’s prediction of spacetime disturbances and gravitational waves, the laser-enabled special detectors LIGO achieved the most accurate measurement ever made by humans across science and engineering and revealed to us the gravitational-wave signals produced by the most powerful collisions of black holes in the universe.

From reading article comments online, many people seem to think that scientists are constantly discovering “water on Mars.” This talk summarizes of our current understanding of water in the Martian past and present, and the implications of that for the habitability of the Red Planet.

Watch the recorded video: https://youtu.be/IBCJDm7JxrQ

Perched on a ridge in the remote polar desert of Ellesmere Island sits an atmospheric research facility, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL). Surrounded by vast, rugged, and beautiful Arctic scenery, a small team of Canadian scientists use sophisticated instruments at PEARL to measure and investigate a wide range of atmospheric science topics. From this strategic location, research is conducted to better understand climate change, ozone depletion chemistry, pollution transport, and the high Arctic atmosphere.

Get an up-close and personal take on the several Gravitational Waves discoveries that have changed science for the better. With the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 and the recent observation of a binary neutron star, the LIGO-VIRGO collaboration and partners have broken records in physics, astronomy, and interferometry – with still more to come.

Have you ever looked up in the starry sky and felt small and insignificant compared to the vastness of the cosmos? What you will learn in this talk is that you are actually made of the exact same material as these sparky dots up there and essentially everything else in the universe. Stars produce the elements that compose everything you see – yourselves included – while they are born, live and die in the cosmic ocean. You are literally a living part of the universe, made out of stardust!