Participation in the science party (Fête de la Science) at IRAP: conferences and scientific events for the public

On 13 and 14 October, as part of the Fête de la Science, the IRAP is organising its Open Days, which will take place in two stages:

• Friday 13 October is being organised in collaboration with the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées and will be dedicated to welcoming schoolchildren. After an introduction by the Observatory’s management, secondary school students from Castres (81) will work in small groups to discover themes such as earthquakes, the formation of water and molecules in space, exoplanets, virtual reality on Mars and the reconstruction of a real lunar space suit!
• On Saturdays, IRAP opens its doors to the general public (minimum age recommended: 6 years). The aim is to help young people discover IRAP’s themes and projects, and to inspire them to take up a career in the field. The programme for the day includes workshops and conferences.

During these days, there will be presentations by scientists related to the theme of the XMM2ATHENA project:

• Natalie WEBB, as principal investigator of XMM2ATHENA, will be giving a talk titled “The Olympics of the stars – which are the fastest, the strongest or the brightest?

• Didier Barret will also be giving a talk on a subject that affects all of us: “From the big bang to global warming: an astrophysicist’s humble perspective”.
• Alain Blanchard, will be talking to us about “The search for the dark components of the Universe”.
• Finally, a workshop based on the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project will be available on registration: “The CTA project: tiny flashes in the sky to observe black holes”. It will be led by Jean-François Olive, Victoria Touzard et Adellain Tsiahina

Summaries of these conferences and workshops are available on the IRAP website:
https://www.irap.omp.eu/grand-public/evenements/journee-portes-ouvertes-2023/

We are expecting between 400 and 500 people to attend the various workshops and conferences throughout the day.