Connecting to Communities

The Global Jet Watch connects the world of research astrophysics with distant communities around the world. The relationships we have developed with our host schools, local communities, and the public lead to educational exchanges that span cultures, countries, and languages.

Enabling School Students to Explore the Night Sky

Under the supervision of a local science teacher, the school children are free to explore the night sky with the telescope and operate the observatories themselves. After local bedtime, the telescopes operate robotically, under the remote control of one of the Global Jet Watch team, gathering data on important dynamical systems in our Galaxy for our astrophysics research programmes.

The teenagers have fun being engaged in authentic scientific research, and gain confidence in technology control and analytical skills. Above all, the experience expands their horizons and lifts their aspirations, supporting both their education and providing a platform for their future careers.

“I am so, so grateful for these opportunities you gave us; those experiences led to the most growth I’ve ever had... it started my journey as a research student...”

-South African Student

Working to Develop the Next Generation of Scientists

The Undergraduate experience at University is when a student learns to think critically for themselves whereas the Post-graduate experience goes way beyond this: a graduate scientist is an apprentice researcher who grows intellectually in new ways throughout their doctorate, and learns how to ask really good questions and figures out creative solutions to problems.

The first cohort of doctoral students whose theses were based on some of the Global Jet Watch data-streams have graduated, and more widely nearly half of Professor Blundell’s former research students are now overseas doing wonderful things in no small part due to their training in Oxford.

THE GLOBAL JET WATCH IN NUMBERS:

10,000+

Students who have visited a GJW Observatory

400,000+

Views of GJW-related Gresham Lectures

1000+

Observations of Jupiter at a GJW Observatory

Working with International Communities

It is wonderful to watch the transforming of the students’ minds as they transition from fear to fun inside the observatory. When teenagers are having fun, they are in a place where they can learn and intellectually thrive, and astronomy is a wonderful non-partisan, apolitical pathway into science regardless of background.

The Global Jet Watch is delighted to work with teachers at our host schools and knowledge transfer and educational exchange happens in both directions. We also cherish the relationships we have build with those in local communities who have, for example, helped us with welding steel or brick laying for shelters for the batteries that store the solar energy collected to run our India and South Africa stations.

Making Science Accessible to the Public

Although Professor Blundell has published over 200 papers in academic journals, a key side of her communications work is to the wider world. She is frequently invited to speak at different institutes across the globe, at literary/science festivals, astronomical societies, schools & universities and has given over 10 named lectures. Her three books published with Oxford University Press span Concepts in Thermal Physics, to Energy Beyond Oil to A Very Short Introduction to Black Holes.

The Gresham Lectures

Observatory Director Katherine Blundell is the 38th Gresham Professor of Astronomy. Since 1597, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy lectures to London and beyond on state-of-the-art Astronomy and Astrophysics. All of her lectures are available via the links below, both to YouTube and via direct download link.

Faster Than Light?
Faster Than Light?

Is there a maximum speed limit in the Universe? Was Einstein right?

Frozen in Time?
Frozen in Time?

How we use telescopes as “time machines” to look back in time and uncover cosmic history.

The End of Matter?
The End of Matter?

Ever wanted to learn more about black holes? Watch this video to separate science fiction from fact about these mysterious phenomena!

Shapes of Free Fall
Shapes of Free Fall

Did you know that not all orbits are circular? Simple changes make dramatic differences to orbital shapes as we dive deep into the “conic section” family of orbits!

Simple Laws, Spectacular Astrophysics
Simple Laws, Spectacular Astrophysics

Even though the individual laws of physics may be simply stated, as they act in combination they give rise to spectacular phenomena.

Perceptions, Expectations, and Discoveries
Perceptions, Expectations, and Discoveries

How does success in research come about? How do we find out what it is we don’t know…?

Watching the Radio
Watching the Radio

Radio astronomy measures signals invisible to the human eye to tell us about striking structures which have no comparable counterpart in the visible spectrum.

Attentive Eyes
Attentive Eyes

This lecture focuses on how amateur stargazing with the naked eye can be remarkably useful to modern astronomy research, specifically analysing the phenomena of nova detonations in our Galaxy.

Witnessing Fireworks
Witnessing Fireworks

How eye-witness accounts of spectacular celestial events from centuries ago can provide crucial information for piecing together modern upstanding of the night sky in the past, including a case study on the Star of Bethlehem.

Unravelling Rainbows
Unravelling Rainbows

What colours is light made of? All you wanted to know about spectroscopy and dispersing light into its constituent colours to reveal the dynamics of distant worlds and cosmic explosions.

Fast and Furious
Fast and Furious

Just how energetic are cosmic rays? What are the origins of their ultra high energies, and what are the implications they have for Earth?

Space-quakes
Space Quakes

When black holes merge, the world shakes. Such quakes in space-time are now detectable and this lecture analyzes their novel impact on the field of astronomy.

Early Universe
Early Universe

How have the events that occurred during the first few seconds after the Big Bang affected the Universe as we know it today?

Atomic Universe
Atomic Universe

This lecture focuses on the recent intellectual revolutions that have completely changed our picture of atoms and how they interact.

Structures in the Universe
Structures in the Universe

How did the universe become filled with such mysterious and beautiful cosmic structures? This lecture will consider what happens when groups of galaxies interact with one another and what happens when they collide and merge.

Magnetic Universe
Magnetic Universe

How some of the exotic and energetic phenomena in the universe can only be explained in terms of magnetic fields that pervade space.

Planetary Universe
Planetary Universe

What are exoplanets and how are they discovered? What does modern technology enable and how does it revolutionize observations? What hinders us from pushing forward the frontiers of space.

Life in the Universe
Life in the Universe

How does life form in the universe, and what are the necessary ingredients for planets to sustain it? Could there be life elsewhere in the solar system, or on exoplanets? If it is there, how could we detect it?

The End of Planetary Atmospheres
The End of Planetary Atmospheres

Earth’s twin, Planet Venus, is a hellish place and seemingly hostile to life…. Could the atmosphere on Earth go the same way? What can we learn from the neighbours…

The End of Our Sun
The End of Our Sun

Our nearest star sustains life on Earth. One day, it will run out of fuel. When this happens, the sun will expand rapidly and dramatically change the habitability of the planets in our solar system.

The End of Massive Stars
The End of Massive Stars

What happens when a massive star dies? This lecture focuses on the physics of supernova explosions and black holes produced at the death of massive stars.

Christopher Wren's Cosmos
Christopher Wren's Cosmos

Sir Christopher Wren, the 9th Gresham Professor Astronomy, made valuable, foundational contributions to astronomy, art, design, science, engineering and re-building communities in London after the apocalyptic fire which followed a deadly pandemic.

The End of Life on Earth
The End of Life on Earth

Asteroids have the potential to wipe out all life on Earth. Professor Blundell discusses the likelihood of an asteroid apocalypse, and how this might be averted. This lecture includes footage of NEO 2023 DZ2 from both the GJW_SA and GJW-IN observatories as this asteroid skimmed past Earth.

The End of Life on Earth
The End of the Universe

The Universe is expanding, increasingly so. Will this persist or will it collapse back on itself? If it does expand forever, what happens to the galaxies? What is the long-term trajectory for the ultimate in collapsed matter, black holes?