Future Day 2023 at the IGEP

On 27.4.2023, 22 schoolgirls from Braunschweig and the surrounding area visited the IGEP. Divided into two groups, grades 5-7 and 8-9 were then supervised by IGEP staff at three stations. Prof. Jessica Agarwal and Maria Mastropietro showed the students by means of a small experiment with potatoes and apples how to obtain information about the shape and brightness variations on the surface from the light curves of asteroids. The fact that this is not always easy and does not always lead to the right result illustrated the difficulties that even professional astronomers face. Johanna Bürger had set up several stations on the Earth's moon in the space bar, which the students used to get an idea of our satellite. A three-dimensional virtual flyover of the moon on a self-created route was particularly popular. Finally, Dorothea Bischoff and Noria Brecher showed the students in the CoPhyLab how IGEP researchers are trying to understand the activity of comets. The focus was on experiments with liquid nitrogen and observing what happens when the “IGEP special snow” is irradiated with an artificial sun. The Future Day was then concluded with a group photo and a joint lunch in the Mensa.