NRF|SAAO Cape Town Open Night
June 28 @ 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
The NRF|SAAO Open Nights in Cape Town take place on the second and fourth Saturday of every month.
All Open Nights will start with a presentation on topics of astronomy or related science fields. Visitors will then be given an introduction to the history of the Observatory, library, museum, and the 120 year-old McClean telescope. If the weather permits, stargazing will take place with McClean and smaller telescopes.
Please note that guests are only allowed entry into our premises from 7:30pm.
Free entry for kids aged 6 & under.
Please email cptbookings@saao.ac.za or call +27 21 447 0025 if you have any queries regarding bookings.
Speaker: Munira Hoosain
Title: ‘Galaxies and their Gas’
Abstract: Galaxies are home to billions of gases, stars, mysterious dark matter and supermassive black holes. The story of how these massive structures change over cosmic time is led by the hydrogen gas that fuels new stars and cycles in and out of them, known as the ‘baryon cycle’. In this talk, I will share how we find this gas using the world-class MeerKAT radio telescope in one of its most elusive forms and what it tells us about the diversity of galaxies we see in the Universe.