The light of the sun and the stars, as well as their movement across the sky, have been a source of awe and interest to humans from antiquity to the present days. This light, which traverses astronomical distances before it reaches our eyes, contains a wealth of information not only for the emitting source, but also for the intervening medium. This talk will present how astronomers are using the light of stars to understand some of the universe properties, and to predict its future with an impressive precision.

Participants:
Vassilis Charmandaris: Professor of Astrophysics

Vassilis Charmandaris is the Director of the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens. He completed his undergraduate studies in Physics at the University of Thessaloniki and obtained his PhD in Astrophysics at Iowa State University (USA) in 1995. He was a postdoctoral fellow at CEA/Saclay and Observatoire de Paris (France) and spent 6 years at Cornell University working on the development of the Infrared Spectrograph of the Spitzer Space Telescope. In 2005 he joined the faculty of the University of Crete where he is currently Professor of Observational Astrophysics.
National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing