2023 celebrates the 550th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. And, for this occasion, a meeting with Agnès Lèbre, astronomer from the Universe and Particles Laboratory of the University of Montpellier and the CNRS, was organized on March 10 at the library as part of the Grains de culture program of the Community of communes. of the Hérault Valley.
Nebulae, sun…
Passionate and exciting, the researcher was able to answer the dazzling questions of a curious, knowledgeable and enthusiastic public regarding current astronomical advances! In a clear, accessible language, the teacher answered the questions by coming back to a few definitions, to the difference between astronomy, science of observation, and astrophysics. It was also a question of everything that technologies have allowed over the past thirty years: technical means, telescopes, James-Webb, the first discovery of an exoplanet in 1995, observation and classification stars, their evolution and how to observe them visibly. But also nebulae, the sun, the aurora borealis, shooting stars, the work of monitoring asteroids and possible forecasts, the climate emergency, the difficulty of freeing ourselves from the bias of our knowledge and imagining what that we do not know!
Electromagnetic Spectrum Studies
Agnès Lèbre also took the participants on a journey, from the observatory of Saint-Michel de Provence to that of the Pic du Midi, by explaining her work and her studies on the electromagnetic spectrum of supergiant stars and the star Mira.
As for the reason for his presence, the astronomer simply answers : “It is important that researchers can share their work and their knowledge with everyone. We work for the public service and we also have a mission of information and dissemination.”
“A big thank you for this evening, I really enjoyed it! “, confides a participant as she leaves. The meeting was moderated by John Bandelier of the Kimiyo association, which aims to create links between the world of research and citizens.
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