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NRF|SAAO Cape Town Open Night
November 29 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Join us for Open Nights at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) in Cape Town, held on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. (NOTE: Open Nights for November 2025 will be on the 3rd and 5th Saturday)
Each evening begins with an engaging presentation on astronomy or a related field of science, followed by a guided tour of the Observatory’s rich history—including our library, museum, and the historic 120-year-old McClean Telescope.
Weather permitting, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy stargazing through the McClean and additional smaller telescopes.
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- Gates open at 7:30 PM.
- Free entry for children aged 6 and under.
Please email cptbookings@saao.ac.za or call +27 21 447 0025 if you have any queries regarding bookings.
Speaker: Lara Featherstone
Abstract and Bio:
Title: “The Cosmic Fuel Crisis: Why Some Galaxies Run Out Of Gas”
Abstract:
Galaxies are complex cosmic ecosystems of gas, dust and stars. Like humans, galaxies are inherently social and live their lives dynamically. They are born, grow up, burn through fuel and eventually, they slow down, and fade. In this talk, I will explore the hidden engines that drive the lifecycles of galaxies as they gather, recycle and lose material over time. We will focus on the balance between flows of gas that cycle in and out of these systems and what happens when that delicate balance is disrupted. Along this road trip, I will reveal the surprising ways in which galaxies run out of fuel, either on their own or through dramatic interactions with their neighbours and environment. These processes ultimately shut down the ability to form new stars, leading to galaxy evolution. Have you ever wondered what it would take to starve a galaxy? Finally, I will share some highlights of my own research on gas depletion timescales. Through this, we will look closely how we actually measure the fuel reservoirs of galaxies and whether they have been changing over the last 8 billion years of cosmic time.
Bio:
Lara Featherstone is a second year M.Sc. student in the Astronomy Department of the University of Cape Town. She is current working on a radio data project under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Sarah Blyth and SAAO M.D. Dr. Ros Skelton. Her research focuses on the neutral hydrogen gas depletion timescales of star forming galaxies, in collaboration with the Looking At the Distant Universe with the MeerKAT Array (LADUMA) survey. In an attempt to maximise her vertical extent, when she is not studying galaxies far away, she enjoys exploring the oceans through free-diving.