Astronomy on Tap: Molecules in Space! (Leiden, in English)

Our next event will take place on Monday 31 October at Grandcafé de Burcht at 20:00 CET! Join us for a night of astronomy with two fantastic talks from Serena Viti and Thanja Lamberts who will tell us about molecules in the birthplace of stars. As always, there will be fun games where you could win cool science prizes! Register at https://aotleiden.eventbrite.nl/ (not required for entry but will help us gauge the number of people attending)

Serena Viti: "The molecular journey through space: a virtual tour of stellar nurseries"
Serena is a Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory. Her research interests span a very wide range of topics but they are all centered around the role of molecules in space, especially in the dense gas of the interstellar medium and star forming regions. Her most recent work concentrates on the interpretation of molecular observations in nearby galaxies, and on devising novel techniques for astrochemistry involving machine learning. In this short talk, Serena will take us on a "chemical" tour inside the birthplace of stars. Stellar nurseries are full of molecules and these molecules have a story to tell! In particular, the formation of low mass stars - like our Sun - is a multi-million year cycle starting from the dark and cold regions we call molecular clouds and ending with the formation of a Sun-like system. Observing star formation is difficult but molecules come to our rescue: Let's see together how and why!

Thanja Lamberts: "Molecular Cocktails on the Rocks: Solid-state chemistry of ices in stellar nurseries"Thanja is an assistant professor at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and at the Leiden Observatory. Her group focuses on computational astrochemistry to unravel which molecules can be formed efficiently in the dense regions of the interstellar medium. In her talk, Thanja will tell us about the molecules that form on the very cold ices that cover small dust grains floating around in the densest regions of the interstellar medium. In other words, about the chemistry that produces both simple species, like methane, water or carbon dioxide, and complex molecules that approach sugars and aminoacids. Finally, she will explain how experimental and computational results are complementary to each other and important ingredients for astrochemistry.

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/