Conferences, telescopes and music on the CU islands

The Night of the Stars 2024, the most important scientific dissemination party in Latin America, organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), is dedicated to the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the death of Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. of Physics and Chemistry.

The event will bring together astronomers, students, professors and science disseminators and will take place on the islands of Ciudad Universitaria, as well as 100 other venues throughout the country, this Saturday.

Among the special guests, astronaut José Hernández stands out, who made his first trip to the International Space Station in August 2009, as part of NASA’s STS-128 mission.

He will give the keynote lecture Reaching New Heights, at 7:30 p.m., on the main esplanade of CU, where he will talk about his life and various anecdotes, with the aim of generating reflection and fueling the enthusiasm of young Mexican scientists.

The program of activities includes the presentations Astrophysics and neutrinos as messengers of the cosmos, by Nissim Fraija Cabrera; How are stars formed? by Antonio Castellanos Ramírez; Planetary nebulae, the flowers of the galaxy, by Miriam Peña Cárdenas, and The Milky Way and its cannibal past, by Javier Sánchez Salcedo.

Also presented to the public will be Explorers of the Cosmos: How Machines Learn to See the Universe, by José Antonio Diego; The alchemy of the universe, by Margarita Rosado Solís; Regions of star formation: a window to the history of the universe, by José Eduardo Méndez, and Puma: 30 years exploring galaxies and nebulae in the OAN, by Minerva Muñoz Sardaneta.

In the thematic tents and planetariums, talks and workshops stand out: Do you know what the stars are made of?, given by the Institute of Nuclear Sciences; Did you know that there is a gamma ray observatory in Mexico?, run by the Institute of Astronomy; How do astronauts live in space, robotics and their algorithms?, offered by the Mexican Space Agency.

A special section has Touching the Sky, Astronomical Lottery and Tactile Astronomy, scientific activities with a perspective of inclusion for people with visual and hearing disabilities, led by the Painalli outreach group, Ciencia para Todos and the Astronomical Society of Mexico.

The organizers also scheduled film screenings in fulldomesuitable for all audiences, in the Philae R1 planetarium; and a rally about recreational science, scientific games, short talks and workshops on planets, extraterrestrial life conditions and augmented reality, with Quantum CuaT’s.

To honor Marie Curie, an exhibition was set up on the contribution of the Curie couple’s discoveries to medicine, as well as recreational activities to explain how X-rays work and experiments related to the scientific principles they worked on.

Among the artistic forum, the presence of the groups Botello & La Tentación, Control Absoluto, Alia Dergal, Juan Carlos & Black Hat Juno’s Dandelion stands out.

Activities include workshops, experiments, music, conference, telescopes and planetariums. They are free to enter, and will be available to the public from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Link to the full program: https://bit.ly/3AnVUx1.

The Night of Stars is organized by a national committee in which the country’s main education and research institutions collaborate with various civil society groups and supported by thousands of volunteers.