Dr Shari Breen is a radio astronomer and the Interim Head of Science Operations at the SKA Observatory. When she isn’t planning how we will operate the world’s largest radio telescope, Shari studies how the largest stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, form. She does this through observations of space lasers (masers), which arise naturally in the vicinity of young stars, and by studying detailed maps of the gas across our Galaxy.

Talk: Unveiling our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

Detailed images of galaxies aren’t in short supply; telescopes like Hubble have revolutionised our view of the extraordinary diversity in the shapes, sizes and structure of the galaxies all around our own Galaxy, the Milky Way. Amongst these detailed images, a similar view of the Milky Way is conspicuously absent. In this talk she will tell you why we don’t know the details of what it looks like, discuss some of the gaps in our knowledge, why it is important to understand and why studies with radio telescopes, such as the SKA, give us the best chance of revealing the most accurate picture of the Milky Way to date.