Events

Join us to ‘Explore the Solar System’ alongside Luke Jerram's  ‘Mars’ at Norton Priory.

We welcome Dr Steve Barrett, from the Department of Physics at the University of Liverpool, to deliver three fascinating talks on this special evening:

I: Robots on Mars. 

Rovers have been exploring the surface of Mars for over 25 years. The latest generation of rovers is looking for signs of past life and is collecting rock, soil and atmosphere samples for return to Earth.

II: Spacecraft

We have visited every major body in the solar system by sending spacecraft across billions of miles. These unmanned probes have mapped dozens of planets and moons and sent back incredible images.

III: Telescopes

Since Galileo first turned his telescope on the night sky, we have been using telescopes with ever larger apertures to observe and study all types of object in the solar system.

All three talks will be included in the ticket price for the evening.  Each talk lasts around 25 minutes.  Ticket prices are as follows: Adults £10.00, Children £5.00, Members £1 discount off both ticket types. 

This exciting evening talk is delivered by Professor Sanjeev Gupta, from Imperial College London.  Professor Gupta is a science team member on NASA's Perseverance rover and Curiosity rover missions.  His work in the last decade has focused on exploring the geology of Mars.

We send robots to Mars in general to search for evidence for extraterrestrial life, in particular ancient life. Sedimentary rocks are the ‘go to’ archives for this search. What was the Martian landscape like early in Mars’ history – deep time Mars - at a time when life is thought to have got going on Earth?  Were ancient environments on Mars suitable for life to have formed, flourished and its evidence preserved in the rock record? 

On February 18 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed at Jezero crater on Mars in a nail-biting landing sequence. The mission represents the most complex, capable rover ever sent to Mars. It is also the first step in a multi-stage campaign to return surface samples back to Earth in order to seek signs of ancient life on the red planet. 

In this talk professor Gupta will discuss the adventures of the rover in its geological exploration of Jezero crater. 

Tickets are priced at £12 adults (£11 members), and £6 children (£5 members).  

In this lecture, Dr Marina Escolano-Poveda will explore how the Egyptians conceptualised the planets, particularly Mars.

The ancient Egyptians were fascinated with the heavens since the beginning of their history. They tracked the risings and settings of the stars, they reckoned time according to the cycles of the Sun and the Moon, and they identified the planets as entities that moved differently from other celestial bodies. In this lecture, we will explore how the Egyptians conceptualised the planets, and will focus in particular on the planet Mars in its different manifestations from the ceilings of tombs and temples of the New Kingdom to the astronomical tables and horoscopes of the Graeco-Roman period.

Dr Marina Escolano-Poveda is a Senior Lecturer in Classics/Ancient History and Egyptology at the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology of the University of Liverpool. Her research focuses on the literature, religion, philosophy, and society of Graeco-Roman Egypt. She currently works on the analysis of Graeco-Egyptian astronomical/astrological and early alchemical sources, as well as the Greek Hermetica from an Egyptological perspective.

Photo Ahmed Amin, copyright MoTA