Here in the UK, we’re celebrating National Astronomy Week and spotlight is on Mars!

National Astronomy Week (NAW) only occurs every few years, and was created to celebrate amazing astronomical events such as Halley’s Comet or the discovery of Neptune. The idea is to get the public interested in and aware of astronomy and astronomical events.

What’s Going On This Year?

NAW is running this year from the 14th – 22nd of November. Unfortunately due to a pesky virus, all events are online lectures and discussions. They’re still great to spend the evening, and lectures are going to be given from university professors, Mars Society members, Observatory members and space sector professionals.

You can find the full list of events here. Tonight’s discussion is all about water and alien life on Mars, hosted by Lucinda Offer of the Royal Astronomical Society an Sandra Voss of the Observatory Science Centre.

All events run between either 11am-12pm or 6pm-8pm. Register for events via Eventbrite.

I will definitely be joining The Tales of Mars Lecture on learn about Mars in artwork, music, and ancient history on the 18th November. I am also really interested in the Martian Careers Day on the 20th November, full of information about working in the space sector and becoming a professional astrophysicist. The evening panel also includes Jane Greaves, who was the lead astrophysicist in the group that may have detected phosphine on Venus.

Although I have not been very present recently, I sure hope you can celebrate NAW with me this week! Do not fear, I have lots of new stuff I’ve learnt about to share on this blog in the upcoming weeks!