NewsOur Place in Space officially launches on Earth Day
Derry~Londonderry's Guildhall welcomed the launch of the project with an exclusive conversation chaired by Explorium's Mark Langtry.
What happens when an artist, astrophysicist and space scientist get together to discuss the BIG questions?
It turns out they have a lot more in common than you might suspect! Oliver Jeffers, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Prof. Stephen Smartt explored the concepts behind Our Place in Space, what it means to be the only known planet to harbour life, and the importance of interdisciplinary STEAM subjects for the future of Earth.
"Sometimes people ask me, 'When did you become an artist?' and I have to respond, 'Well, when did you stop?' "
Chair for the evening Mark Langtry then delved into an audience Q&A uncovering answers to questions about life, the universe and everything in it.
Discussing the best reads for a trip to space, what existed before the Big Bang and the size of our Solar System, our star-studded panel got their neurons firing as they pondered a host of astronomical questions from our audience.
Q - "Is the Universe expanding?"
A- "Yes, we know that nearly all galaxies are moving away from us [...] The Universe is not expanding away from just us, these measurements mean every point in the Universe sees the same expansion. Often people will ask what it is expanding into? 3-dimensional space itself is expanding and pulling the galaxies along with it. The easiest way to visualise this is to think of an analogy of being squashed on the surface of an expanding balloon. The surface is expanding and every point on it is moving away from its neighbours. Our Universe is the 3-dimensional analogy of this picture"
Catch-up with the spectacular Earth Day event below.
