News / Astronomer Royal beams in
THE ASTRONOMER Royal for Scotland is in the isles visiting schools and giving a lecture in the Shetland Museum and Archives on Saturday.
John C Brown, now retired Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, will speak about gravity and how it controls everything from the most trivial to the creation of the universe.
He said he was well aware he was competing with the blues festival next door at Mareel, but hoped enough people would gravitate toward the museum to hear him.
“Gravity is the thing that keeps us sitting in our seats, keeps the air on the earth, and keeps the earth orbiting around the sun.
“I will then be talking about the extremes of gravity, very low and very high gravity in the universe, and the role of gravity in the big bang,” he said.
Attracting the Astronomer Royal to Shetland is a major coup for the local astronomy society, but Professor Brown has personal reasons to visit.
His wife Margaret’s grandfather was a minister in Dunrossness, and the family still has some family and friends in the isles they keep in touch with.
Professor Brown was made Astronomer Royal in 1995, a position that carries no salary or official duties, but he is expected to further the general interest in astronomy.
As such he attends science festivals, enjoys visiting schools and particularly talking to primary kids who were still so “very curious” about everything going on around them.
The Magic of Gravity and the Structure of our Universe starts at 7.30pm. Entry cost is £5, but is free for members of the Shetland Astronomical Society.
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