The ECO Science Foundation (ECOSF) in collaboration with the Imran Pervez Khan Institute (IPKI), is pleased to invite you to the webinar on The Long Quest of Astronomy for Sharp Images, as part of our Science Chronicles series.

Webinar Title: The Long Quest of Astronomy for Sharp Images
Speaker: Prof. Pierre Léna, Emeritus Professor, Paris Observatory & Université Paris-Cité, Member of the French Académie des sciences
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 | 9:00 AM (Paris Time)/12:00 PM (Islamabad Time)

Join Zoom Meeting: Click Here
Meeting ID: 873 4535 7476
Passcode: 235084

About the Webinar

As soon as Galileo’s observed details on the Moon, the Sun and planets, astronomers have been willing to get more detailed images of celestial bodies. Although the first diameter of a star was measured in 1920, progress was slow until the advent of terrestrial large telescopes observing at optical wavelengths, and especially new techniques to overcome the deleterious effect of the Earth’s atmosphere on images. Adaptive optics and optical interferometry, on the European Very Large Telescope (Chile) and other instruments in the world, have suddenly improved by orders of magnitude the sharpness of observable details. The webinar will briefly explore two domains where these gains lead to spectacular discoveries: the massive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy and the crowd of exoplanetary systems around other stars.

About the Speaker

Pierre Léna is a French astrophysicist, Emeritus Professor at Paris Observatory & Université Paris-Cité, who worked on images in infrared astronomy, participated to the design of the European Very large Telescope in Chile and developed methods to obtain ultra-sharp images of celestial objects. He also contributed to science education for children at school, developing methods and resources with the Foundation La main à la pâte (Inquiry) since 1995, and collaborating with many countries, including Pakistan, for such active involvement of teachers and students in science. He is a member of the French Académie des sciences.