A RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting organised by: Dr Ryan Nichol (UCL) rjn_AT_hep.ucl.ac.uk, Professor James Hinton (Leicester) jim.hinton_AT_leicester.ac.uk, Dr Lee Thompson (Sheffield) l.thompson_AT_sheffield.ac.uk
In the last century our knowledge of the Universe has increased dramatically as scientists have built increasingly sophisticated telescopes that probe the cosmos over a wide range of wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. The next revolution in our understanding may come not from detecting electromagnetic waves, but instead from detecting individual particles originating from some of the most extreme astrophysical objects in the Universe.
This Specialist Discussion Meeting will begin by reviewing the relatively short history of
using particles as probes of the extreme universe, in particular concentrating on the birth of neutrino astronomy with SuperNova 1987A. The meeting will also address the current experimental and theoretical status of the field and discuss future prospects.
This meeting is timed to coincide with an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts of Mariko Mori’s work, which visualises information from the SuperKamiokande neutrino detector situated in the Kamioka Observatory in Japan.