Free Public Lecture in Astronomy

Thursday 19th April 2012 at the Art and Design Academy

Aphrodite's Computer: The Antikythera Mechanism

Recreation of front gears and dials (Photo courtesy of Antikythera Mechanism Research Project)

Perhaps the most extraordinary surviving relic from the ancient Greek world is a device containing over thirty gear wheels dating from the 1st century B.C., and now known as the Antikythera Mechanism.

This device is an order of magnitude more complicated than any surviving mechanism from the following millennium, and there is no known precursor. It is clear from its structure and inscriptions that its purpose was astronomical, including eclipse prediction.

In this illustrated talk, Mike Edmunds (Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Cardiff University) will outline the results, including an assessment of the accuracy of the device - from the international research team, which has been using the most modern imaging methods to probe the device and its inscriptions. Their results show the extraordinary sophistication of the Mechanism's design.

Speaker: Mike Edmunds (Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Cardiff University and former Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy)

Date: Thursday 19th April 2012

Time: Doors open 6.45pm for a 7.15pm start (please be early as we have limited seating)

Venue: Art and Design Academy, Johnson Foundation Auditorium, L3 5RD

Price: Free and unticketed - just show up, suitable for all!

Contact: 0151 231 2919 or aeh@astro.ljmu.ac.uk

The Antikythera Mechanism on display at the National Archaeological Museum, with conservator Gerassimos Makris. (Photo by Yanis Bitsakis)

Previous Lectures in the Series

Hubble Against Earth's Horizon (1997)

Hubble in Orbit: Two Decades and Counting (23-June-2011)

Dr Bob Fosbury (former director of the Space Telescope - European Coordinating Facility in Garching)

Abstract: During May 2009, the Hubble Space Telescope was subject to the most intense overhaul of its life with astronauts from the Space Shuttle Atlantis performing engineering feats far beyond what was originally envisaged for orbital servicing. Instruments were repaired and replaced during the most complex human process that had yet been performed in space. The telescope is now some hundred times more powerful than when it was launched in 1990. This is the story of Hubble, looking back on the revolution in astrophysics that it has achieved and forward to what it is achieving now in its probings of the early history of the universe to the study of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.

Listen - LJMUTV

Watch - YouTube