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Academician Came to Visit SHSID

June 7, 2017

Academician Came to Visit SHSID

On June 5th, our school has invited Academician Ding Bo Kuang and his team to give a lecture about our universe.Academician Kuang is one of China’s top infrared optics experts; he is the former director of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics. His contributions to the development of infrared devices for China’s satellites are massive. Researcher Xu has also conducted research on astronomy previously at the Hubble Institute in the United States and collaborated with many renowned physicists in our modern day, his contributions to astrophysics are not to be overlooked as well.

At the beginning of the lecture, Academician Ding Bo Kuang gave a brief introduction of the lecture and introduced the other two researchers. After a round of applause, Researcher Chun Xu started his lecture which centered around the topic of human kinds’ position in the universe. He started off by talking about the composition of solar system. The solar system consists of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Kuiper belt which is a ring of asteroids. Then, Researcher Chun Xutalked about the unit “AU” and light year. “AU” equals the average distance between Earth and Sun (1.5×108km). A light year equals to the distance which light travels for a year. For a better representation of the size of individual planets and the tremendous space between each planet, the lecturer used objects in our daily life to demonstrate. He also talked about the size of Milky Way Galaxy and the position of the solar system in Milky Way Galaxy. By giving vivid descriptions, we understand there are limits which human beings could not get pass these days. Those spaces beyond the boundaries of the observable universe are still waiting for us to explore.

We’ve also learned about the origin of the universe and how human discovered the world throughout the history. As time pass, the students gain more understandings of their world. As the development of the civilization, scientists discover the origin of our universe - the singularity. When using the universal gravitation on planets, scientists also predicted dark energy and dark matter, although there are still no concrete evidences these days.

After the presentation, the Q&A session began. Students all actively asked questions regarding topics such as astrophysics, the Big Bang Theory; others simply wanted to know what the scientists themselves thought of some controversial topics in our modern world. Everyone took something away from the lecture, the students who asked questions also received a souvenir—a photograph of a satellite with Academician Kuang’s signature.

Through the lecture, the students understand the insignificance of human beings. The knowledge about the universe could not be simply comprehended by a person’s life. The knowledge is accumulated by generations after generations of scientists. Although the mystery of the universe may never be decrypted, the perseverance, the curiosity, and the passion are the virtues which we should hold.

(Written by 11 (3) Mo, Ka Chun 9（6）Liu Mengting Picture by Chen Yu)