The University of Manchester’s very own rock star scientist is to follow up the success of his smash hit TV series on the origins of the universe with a public lecture which will be webcast live on www.manchester.ac.uk
Professor Brian Cox visited locations across the globe to explain how the laws of nature carved spectacular landscapes throughout the Solar System for his acclaimed BBC TV series "Wonders of the Solar System".
The Oldham-born scientist, based at the School of Physics and Astronomy, will tell the audience of the strange and fascinating worlds that inhabit our Solar System.
For the five-part series described as ‘utterly contagious’ by the Guardian, he told how Earth, of all the planets in the Solar System, is the only one to have a moon that completely obscures the face of the Sun.
Prof Cox described how every molecule of every drop of water is moved around our planet by the Sun’s energy for the series praised by BBC Radio Two DJ Chris Evans as one of the best he has ever seen.
In Norway he witnessed the battle between the Sun’s wind and our planet, as the night sky displayed the beautiful Northern Lights.
And in California he made contact with Voyager, a space probe that has been travelling since its launch 30 years ago. Now, 14 billion kilometres on, Voyager has just detected the solar wind is beginning to run out of puff.
Prof Cox – along with thousands of other scientists – works on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the famous scientific research centre in Geneva.
The team hope to recreate conditions in the Universe less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang and uncover some of its unsolved mysteries.
Prof Cox is also a regular presenter on the BBC flagship science programme Horizon and acted as scientific advisor on the 2007 film Sunshine, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland.
He has received many awards for his efforts to publicise science. In 2002 he was elected an International Fellow of The Explorers Club and in 2006 he received the British Association Lord Kelvin Award for this work.
Professor Cox’s free lecture will take place at 6.20pm and will be availalbe on www.manchester.ac.uk
