Von fernen, fremden Welten - Christiane Helling

Lecture

Stano Filko began to concern himself intensively with cosmic space in the 1960s. The successes in aeronautics and space travel offered him interesting stimuli and in a certain way shaped his work from the very beginning. In the exhibition of the HALLE FÜR KUNST, Filko’s artistic approach to cosmic themes is evident in various works, which show images of stars, rockets and intergalactic structures.

In an introductory lecture, Christiane Helling, Director of the Institute for Space Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), will give an up-to-date insight into the exploration of cosmic worlds. What is humanity’s position with regard to the cosmos? And what role does science play in this? The astrophysicist will present the Graz Space Institute of the ÖAW, which has been researching our solar system and the diversity of extrasolar planets extremely successfully for more than 50 years. Currently, the institute provides scientific know-how and high-precision measurement instruments for 24 international space missions. In her talk, the IWF director will focus on her own field of research: the weather and climate of exoplanets.

Artists

Participating artists

Prof. Dr. Christiane Helling is an astrophysicist and since October 2021 Director at the Institute of Space Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz. She is a professor of space science at Graz University of Technology and received her habilitation in astrophysics from Berlin University of Technology in 2004. Most recently, Christiane Helling was a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and both founder and director of the St. Andrews Center for Exoplanet Science. Her research focuses on atmospheric chemistry and exoplanet weather and climate. Christiane Helling has authored over 200 scientific papers, is the author of Clouds (ISBN-10 3863120108), and is co-author of the Encyclopedia of Mathematics (2003).