KUCHING, April 23: Astrophysicists Professor Albert Zijlstra and Professor Gary Fuller from Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics will be giving a public talk at the Sultan Iskandar Planetarium here on April 27.
The event will start at 10am with Fuller talking about ‘Exoplanets: Planets around other stars’, followed by Zijlstra on ‘The future of the Sun’.
The curator of the Planetarium, Ismandy Ali, told DayakDaily that Fuller would explain how planets around other stars were formed and also discuss how exoplanets are detected.
“Fuller will then talk about how they survey what is currently known as exoplanets and their properties.
“He will conclude by looking forward to the prospects for future advances in our understanding of exoplanets and their properties,” he said.
As for Zijlstra. Ismandy said this astrophysicist would talk about how we live by the Sun that provides us with power, determines our climate and grows our food.
“Zijlstra will talk about how the Sun gets its energy from nuclear fusion, slowly turning hydrogen into helium, and explain what will happen once the hydrogen runs out.
“He will go through the topic on the changes that are coming, when the Sun first bloats into a Red Giant, will form a beautiful Planetary Nebula, and finally collapses to become a White Dwarf — 5 billion years from now.
“He will also touch on will happen to the Earth and, finally, the Sun’s demise that will help form a new generation of stars and planets,” revealed Ismandy.
All enthusiastic stargazers are welcome to the talk, he said. — DayakDaily
