Monthly Meeting 20 May 2026

Exploring the faint universe with EUCLID

About the Talk

Galaxies change and grow over cosmic time, often through mergers with other galaxies. These interactions can leave behind tidal features that trace a galaxy’s past. Studying these structures helps us understand how galaxies assemble and also gives us clues about dark matter. Because tidal features are faint, they have very low surface brightness, they are difficult to detect and require highly sensitive instruments.

ESA’s Euclid space telescope is ideally suited to revealing these faint structures, and in this talk I will show how it is helping us build a clearer picture of galaxy formation and evolution.

About this month’s speaker – Dr Elisabeth Sola

Elisabeth is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (UK) and a Research Associate at King’s College, Cambridge. She is an observational astronomer, looking at faint structures around galaxies to understand their formation and evolution. She did her PhD in Astrophysics at the Strasbourg astronomical Observatory (FR) and also obtained a non-specialised engineering degree from the Télécom Physique Strasbourg engineering school (FR), as well a Master’s degree in Astrophysics from the University of Strasbourg (FR).

Elisabeth Sola: https://e-sola.github.io/

Institute of Astronomy personal page: https://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/people/elisabeth.sola

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Anyone is welcome – beginner or expert – and there is no need to pre-book. A small charge applies to help us cover costs (typically £3 for non-members; £2 for NEAS members; U16s free). Doors open at 7.30pm with the talk starting at 8.00pm.

Note that if you are using satnav system, the postcode may not take you directly to the hall – please check this Google Maps link if you aren’t sure: https://goo.gl/maps/fNxmg9qnAYm

Covid Precautions

• You are encouraged to wear a mask and you are asked to be respectful and sensitive to the medical circumstances of others
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