AoT: Close encounters of the fast kind (Leiden, in English)

The next Astronomy on Tap Leiden (AoT) will take place on Monday 16 February at the Galerie Café Leidse Lente at 20:00 CEST. Join this AoT to learn about high-speed encounters of stars and black holes at the center of the galaxy. As always, there will be fun games with which you can test your knowledge and try to win cool science prizes!

The speakers
Manuel Cavieres is a second-year PhD student at Leiden Observatory born and raised in Santiago, Chile. His research focuses on finding hypervelocity stars, the fastest objects in our galaxy that result from extreme encounters between stellar systems and the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. In his talk, he will explore how astronomers hunt for these extremely rare objects, and present the discovery of the second hypervelocity star ever detected.

Bianca Sersante is a third-year PhD student at Leiden Observatory whose research explores what happens in the crowded and extreme environments at the centres of galaxies. Her talk will focus on encounters between pairs of black holes that, while orbiting each other, get too close to the centre of our galaxy, where a much more massive black hole resides. The two smaller black holes can be separated, and one of them, or sometimes both, can end up being captured by the central one. Observing these events can help us better understand how our galactic centre formed, how it has evolved over time, and what kinds of objects are found there today.

Logistical information
The AoT starts at 20:00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the café, save a seat, and grab a drink at the bar. The organisation uploads a recording of the talks on their YouTube channel. Galerie Café Leidse Lente is located at Haagweg 4 in Leiden. Payed parking is located at Haagweg 8.