ESPM-17 Outreach Events

11 Sept 2024, 14:00 → 12 Sept 2024, 20:00 UTC

Alberto Cora (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Alessandro Bemporad (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Helen Mason (University of Cambridge)

This webpage collects all the outreach events and activities that are organized in the occasion of the "17th European Solar Physics Meeting" (ESPM-17); the webpage of the main event can be found here:

https://indico.ict.inaf.it/e/espm-17

In the framework of this event, three types of outreach activities are organized:

1. A lunch-break session (September 12) about the Outreach in Solar Physics (organizer: Prof. Helen Mason) - only in English
2. An outreach conference (September 11) open to the public (organizers: Dr. Alessandro Bemporad & Dr. Alberto Cora) - only in Italian
3. A series of outreach "video pills" about Solar Physics to be published on YouTube and MEDIA-INAF channels (organizer: Dr. Alberto Cora) - only in Italian

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Questa pagina web raccoglie tutti gli eventi e le attività di sensibilizzazione organizzati in occasione del "17th European Solar Physics Meeting" (ESPM-17); la pagina web dell'evento principale può essere trovata qui:

https://indico.ict.inaf.it/e/espm-17

Nell’ambito di questo evento vengono organizzate tre tipologie di attività di sensibilizzazione:

1. Una sessione di pausa pranzo (12 settembre) sull'Outreach in Solar Physics (organizzatore: Prof. Helen Mason) - solo in inglese
2. Una conferenza di sensibilizzazione (11 settembre) aperta al pubblico (organizzatori: Dr. Alessandro Bemporad e Dr. Alberto Cora) - solo in italiano
3. Una serie di "videopillole" divulgative sulla Fisica Solare da pubblicare sui canali YouTube e MEDIA-INAF (organizzatore: Dott. Alberto Cora) - solo in italiano

ESPM17short.odp

pillola_ruggero_NASCITA_MORTE_SOLE_completa.mp4

TORINO_city_and_its_area.pdf

Wednesday 11 September

Conferenza divulgativa aperta al pubblico (only in Italian): "Sole, Clima e Fusione Nucleare"

“Sole, clima e fusione nucleare”
11 Settembre 2024 ore 17:30
Aula Magna del Politecnico al Lingotto

Il Sole è sicuramente la stella che meglio conosciamo, data la molteplicità di fenomeni che possiamo osservare con dettagli irraggiungibili nelle osservazioni delle altre stelle dell’universo. Eppure, la spiegazione fisica di moltissimi fenomeni che osserviamo sul Sole (le eruzioni solari, il vento solare, il riscaldamento coronale, il ciclo solare) è tutt’ora un mistero irrisolto. Capire il Sole ci permette di capire sia come la vita si è formata su questo pianeta, sia come potrà essere sostenuta in futuro.
Alla fine degli anni ‘70 la comunità scientifica prevedeva l’arrivo di una nuova glaciazione, proprio la richiesta di verifica di queste previsioni causò un aumento di attenzione da parte dei ricercatori. Rivelando che il clima, sì stava cambiando, ma riscaldandosi. Il fenomeno non è legato alle alterazioni dell’irraggiamento solare e la visione della Terra dallo spazio aiuta a comprendere le dinamiche del riscaldamento globale.
Con l’avvento dell’era spaziale, dagli anni ’80 la comunità scientifica ha posto sotto crescente attenzione non solo il clima terrestre, ma lo stato dello spazio circumterrestre e interplanetario, una regione che viene continuamente perturbata dalla mutevole attività solare, che genera splendide aurore boreali, ma anche disturbi che possono avere ricadute significative su gran parte delle tecnologie umane. Per capire meglio e prevedere questi fenomeni è nata una nuova disciplina, denominata meteorologia spaziale.
La comprensione a livello fondamentale di questi fenomeni dallo spazio è inoltre affiancata da esperimenti di laboratorio e simulazioni numeriche che permettono di approfondire il comportamento di quello stato di materia denominato plasma in cui si trova la stragrande maggioranza dell’universo.

Evento di divulgazione scientifica rivolto alla Cittadinanza in occasione del “17mo European Solar Physics Meeting” (ESPM-17), congresso organizzato dall’INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino e patrocinato dal Politecnico di Torino e dall’Università di Torino.

Format dell’evento: 3 presentazioni da 15-20 minuti ognuna, tavola rotonda e domande dal pubblico in Sala.

Moderatore: Piero Bianucci, scrittore e giornalista scientifico

Relatori: Francesco Porcelli (Politecnico di Torino) professore di Fisica teorica della materia esperto di fusione nucleare;
Carla Taricco (Dipartimento Fisica di Torino) professoressa di Fisica del clima ed esperta di paleoclima;
Alessandro Bemporad (INAF-Osservatorio di Torino) professore di Elementi di Eliofisica e Meteorologia Spaziale ed esperto di fisica solare;

Tavola Rotonda: Lorenzo Colombo (progetto “Chi ha paura del buio?”), esperto di comunicazione scientifica.

Organizzazione: INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino; Politecnico di Torino

INGRESSO LIBERO FINO AD ESAURIMENTO POSTI

Conveners: Dr Alessandro Bemporad (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)), Prof. Francesco Porcelli (Politecnico di Torino)

annuncio_conferenza_divulgativa_locandina.pdf

Thursday 12 September

Outreach in Solar Physics

A huge number of solar outreach and educational activities are carried out across Europe (for example linked to European projects such as EST and ESA’s Solar Orbiter) and beyond. Some of these projects are linked to the Arts, visual art (such as STFC’s SunSpaceArt) and music. This session is aimed at both informing the solar physics community about this work, sharing ideas and resources, and encouraging young solar researchers to engage with and develop outreach activities.

It is paramount that we share our knowledge and research about the Sun, solar wind, space weather and the heliosphere with the public, politicians, and the next generation (students and school children). The press and social media are, for example, a great way to reach the public. This is very timely with the Sun approaching solar maximum, large sunspot groups, solar flares and extensive auroral displays. Sharing our ideas and resources will enable us to reach further and have more impact.

This lunchtime session will comprise a few short introductory talks (5 minutes each) and a panel discussion.

Conveners: Helen Mason (University of Cambridge), Hugh Hudson (UC Berkeley / U of Glasgow)

1 SunSpaceArt – The Art and Science of Creativity

The SunSpaceArt project, funded by STFC, comprises a team of scientists and artists. Over the past six years, we have run cross-curriculum (science, art, literacy) STEAM (STEM+Arts) workshops at hundreds of primary schools across the UK, especially those most in need of science enrichment. We have also run ‘drop-in’ activities for families at Science Festivals. These activities reinforce science learning, ignite curiosity and develop creativity. The feedback has been extremely positive. We encourage other solar outreach providers across Europe to explore possibilities for working more closely with the Arts.

Speaker: Stephanie Yardley (MSSL/UCL)

2 The SunSketcher eclipse experience

The 2024 April 8 total eclipse saw success with the "SunSketcher.org" project. In this effort all of the development was done by a diverse and highly interdisciplinary group of undergraduate students at Western Kentucky University. Their SunSketcher smartphone app was then taken up by tens of thousands of volunteers, aided by NASA publicity, and we are analyzing the data now. The basic scientific result will be an improved measure of solar oblateness, an issue of importance since the 19th century and the subject of later work by Einstein and Dicke.

Speaker: Hugh Hudson (UC Berkeley / U of Glasgow)

3 Public outreach at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

In this talk we present outreach activities of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Goettingen (MPS, Germany). The MPS regularly organizes outreach events, such as the "night of science" in cooperation with the University of Goettingen, guided tours and public talks for MPS visitors, and "Max Planck goes to school", and also new approaches, like cinematic documentaries, are explored.
Moreover employees of the MPS take part in external events. We would also like to address how to deal with controversial public opinions about current scientific topics. In addition we aim to get in contact with young school students to provide an insight into the scientific life as a researcher.

Speakers: Johannes Hölken (Max Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung), Mr Jonathan Noelke (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research), Lisa-Marie Zessner (MPS Goettingen), Patrick Ondratschek (MPS Göttingen)

ESPM-17_Public_outreach_at_MPS.pptx

4 Chat s astronomkou -outreach activities in Czech Republic

In this presentation we would like to introduce Chat s astronomkou, a series of outreach activities, mostly organised in the framework of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and extending to International Women's Day. It is a project that aims to show the variety of topics that are researched in the Astronomical Institute of the CAS, so it is a joint effort of female scientists and students working at the different departments of the Institute. We have held online chats open to the public, private chats with schools and, more recently, even live streaming. We would like to share our experiences and enrich them with comments from other colleagues, or even start new outreach collaborations.

Speaker: Marta García Rivas (Astronomical Institute of the CAS)

ESPM_CsA_MartaGRivas.pdf

5 The Sun at a glance: An International Infographic Competition to Teach Science at School

In 2021, the European Solar Telescope (EST) consortium organized the international competition “The Sun at a glance” to show the potential of the Sun for teaching science at school. Here we briefly describe the main organizational aspects, and the results of this activity.

The competition was designed to encourage students to research about the Sun and present their results in the form of an infographic. The activity was open to small groups of students in the age ranges 14-15 and 15-16, led by a teacher. The prizes included a visit to Teide Observatory in Tenerife (Spain) for the two teams producing the best designs. A dedicated website (www.est-east.eu/contest) was set up to provide the participants with general information, the announcement poster, the official rules, and the national points of contact.

This activity raised extraordinary interest in the European education community. A total of 2,859 students and 303 teachers from 242 schools signed up for the competition, representing 16 European countries. The infographics they submitted were used to build the EST Solarpedia, a comprehensive solar encyclopedia hosted on the EST website. The EST Solarpedia is a unique educational resource open to the teaching community and the general public, a legacy that will stand for years to come.

Speaker: Mariarita Murabito (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

EST_contest_ESPM.pptx

6 Press and public engagement surrounding the geomagnetic storm of May 2024

I will talk briefly about the different types of outreach and public engagement opportunities that arose due to the recent severe geomagnetic storm and space weather effects that occurred in May 2024. I will discuss how to handle these opportunities and give advice, particularly for early career researchers, to those who are interested in participating in and developing outreach activities on space weather. I will finish with what we can do as a community to enable maximum impact from these activities.

Speaker: Stephanie Yardley (MSSL/UCL)

sunspaceart_SYardley.pptx

7 CHE SOLE CHE FA : educational Space Weather bulletins by SWELTO

The Solar Physics Group at the INAF-Turin Astrophysical Observatory (OATo) is involved in many Space Weather (SW) projects and missions. In particular, is leading the local project SWELTO-Space WEather Laboratory in Turin Observatory, aimed at the development of new tools and measurements of interest for SW.
After a period of testing based on the creation of weekly SWELTO SW reports, in April 2022, we began a collaboration with the INAF Educational project “Sorvegliati Spaziali” (PI Daria Guidetti) to provide monthly bulletins. The experimental edition was released on the “SWELTO TV” YouTube channel. In this test phase, we posted 12 videos with a duration of 3–7 min regarding the observed solar activity during different phases of the solar cycle, achieving an average of 90 views each. The new series of monthly bulletins entitled “Che Sole che fa” is now published (in Italian language) on the “Sorvegliati Spaziali” website and reposted by MEDIA-INAF TV, the institutional YouTube channel with more than 46,000 subscribers. The SWELTO bulletins were also announced on TV by TG Leonardo, the national science and environment newscast.
At July 2024 , we published 28 monthly videos starting from April 2022, achieving a total of 36,883 views, an average of 1317 views for each video, and a peak of 3860 views for a single video. The same team developed an initiative specifically for 17th European Solar Physics Meeting called "Sapore di Sole", based on short (3 minutes) educational videos covering the main topics of Solar Physics and SW.

Speaker: Alberto Cora (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

8 Sorvegliati Spaziali - translating Solar Activity into Public Knowledge

Sorvegliati Spaziali – looking up to Space to protect our Planet– is a project of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and represents one of the world's first coordinated, complete and coherent public awareness campaign on the Planetary Defense by a research body.
From near Earth asteroids and comets to space weather, from meteors and meteorites to space debris, Sorvegliati Spaziali aims to provide scientific and cultural knowledge to convey how our Planet is exposed to various natural and man-made threats in Space, as well as our current plans for response to them, meanwhile rowing against the many fake news about Planetary Defense that has biased the collective imagination.

In the field of space weather, the project publishes up-to-date news on solar activity and research in this domain.
In addition, it provides a solar bulletin service with multiple cadences, through daily and monthly solar bulletins, offering detailed and timely analyses of solar conditions.
Sorvegliati Spaziali also developed an augmented reality app and brochure of the project which, among other experiences, allows the user to simulate a dynamic and colorful aurora whose sound can also be heard thanks to the sonification of emitted radio waves into sound waves, offering at the same time in-depth content.
Finally, Sorvegliati e Spaziali has collaborated with the RAI - Radiotelevisione italiana, on the scicomm program for young audiences "Meteo Spazio". In this collaboration, the project has contributed various contents, including a weekly solar bulletin specifically tailored for kids (age 8-12).

Speaker: Marco Galliani (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

ESPM-17-2024-Outreach-Galliani.pptx

9 Panel discussion

Speakers: Helen Mason (University of Cambridge), Hugh Hudson (UC Berkeley / U of Glasgow), Stephanie Yardley (MSSL/UCL)

Outreach.pdf