1
2012 Bolton Lecture in Astronomy OF SUNS AND OTHER WORLDS Professor Michael Thompson Director of the High Altitude Observatory , Colorado. Thursday 29th November 2012, Conference Auditorium, University of Leeds 5.30pm – 6.30pm School of Physics & Astronomy Abstract: Ground- and space-based observations have opened our eyes to new views of our Sun and planets around other stars. Our own Sun is more variable than we had previously supposed; yet it provides an environment on Earth where life has flourished for millennia. Now observations are revealing that our own solar system is not unique, but other planetary systems may be very different from our own. In this talk I shall discuss how fragile our own existence around the Sun might be in the light of “space weather”, and what we are learning about planets elsewhere in the Galaxy and the suns around which those planets exist. Biographical Background: Michael Thompson is Director of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, and runs the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory in Hawaii. Originally from Nottingham, he studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge and did research for a PhD in solar physics there. He then took research positions in Denmark and the USA. Before assuming his present post in the USA, he was a lecturer and professor in the University of London and University of Sheffield.
