AoT Leiden: Answering cosmological questions with simulations (Leiden, in English)

The next Astronomy on Tap Leiden will take place on Monday 31 March at the Galerie Café Leidse Lente at 20:00 CEST (summer time!). Join to discover how important cosmological questions can be answered with simulations. During this event Filip Husko will talk about the connection between galaxies and their supermassive black holes. Victor Moreno will discuss how galactic simulations can give us information about the elusive nature of dark matter. As always, there will be fun games with which you can test your knowledge and try to win cool science prizes.

Filip Husko: Black hole jets
Filip Husko is a postdoc in the galaxy formation group at Leiden Observatory. He works on understanding galaxies from a theoretical perspective, and will talk about the connection between galaxies and their supermassive black holes. These black holes spew out jets that are the most energetic and among the largest objects in the universe. In this way, black holes can kill their host galaxies. Filip will talk about this process in detail, including showing real images and simulated videos of it happening.

Victor Moreno: Why size matters: using the smallest galaxies to answer the biggest questions
Everything we see around us is only 5% of what is out there in the universe. The large majority of matter is invisible, and only detected through its gravitational influence. Despite hints of the existence of this so-called dark matter going back almost 90 years, its precise nature remains unknown and makes it one of the biggest unsolved questions in physics. Victor Moreno studied and completed his PhD in computational astrophysics in Durham (United Kingdom). He then joined Leiden Observatory where he is a postdoc within the galaxy formation group. His main research concerns the nature of dark matter and how galaxies grow, evolve, and interact with their surrounding environment. In this talk, Victor will show how by leveraging simulations of galaxy formation and observations of dwarf galaxies in the local universe, we can learn something about the elusive nature of dark matter.

Logistical information
Astronomy on Tap starts at 20:00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the hotel, 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.

All dates for 2025 (may change)
17 February
31 March
28 April
26 May
23 June
21 July
29 September
27 October
24 November