Breaking the speed limit: how to do astronomy with particles travelling faster than light

On Thursday 27 August, with the beautiful but rainy backdrop of (real life) Kilkeel, Professor Garret Cotter gave a talk to nearly 80 Exonians including students, alumni, staff and Fellows, about his work using the world’s largest gamma-ray telescope: The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.), built under some of the world’s darkest night skies, on the Khomas highlands in Namibia.

It was (in the words of an audience member) ‘a masterly piece of teaching’, and accessible to the least scientific of minds (myself included!). The combination of research and teaching was superb, with the kettle/fighter-jet/black hole analogy going down particularly well. The talk ‘Breaking the Speed Limit’ is available to watch below or by clicking on this link.