Conspiracy Theories

Service Description

This lesson explores the psychology of conspiracy theories - what they are, how they arise, why people fall for them and how we can stop them. The Cosmic Distance Ladder. Join us for part 3 of our Astronomy course this September! We will be delving into the incredible world of Space and exploring some fascinating topics under the guidance of our fantastic Scholar, Paul: The Cosmic Distance Ladder: How do astronomers measure the distances to the stars and galaxies? There isn’t one single method but a series of methods that link together, confirmation of each one supporting the next to measure further and further out into the universe. This is the Cosmic Distance Ladder. We look at the main rungs and how they were discovered. Future Space Technologies: Will we ever be able to harness the seemingly unlimited power of the Sun? Travel to the stars within a human lifetime? Be able to move the Earth out of the way of an incoming swarm of asteroids? All this technology is feasible. Some of it is almost here! We look at some selected future space technologies; the Space Elevator, the Dyson Sphere and the Stellar Engine. The Moon: Where did the Moon come from? What effects does it have on the Earth? Is it possible that life on Earth wouldn’t have started without it? This session is a closer look at our nearest celestial neighbour and it’s importance both physically and culturally. Discovering the Solar System: The Solar System contains a vastly different array of planets and other objects. Why is this? Is our Solar System unique? This session looks at this diversity and highlights how we have now visited, with spacecraft, every known planet in our Solar System. The Big Bang: Currently our best theory of the origin of the Universe. We still don’t know how the Big Bang happened, but it does explain a great deal of what we see today. However, there James Webb space telescope is providing us with new evidence that we may have to refine this theory.