The Adventures of a supersonic astrophysicist
PIERRE LÉNA – Académie des Sciences (France), President of the Foundation La main à la pâte
In cooperation with Italy’s French Embassy

Thursday December the 11th, 2014

Pierre Léna is one of the best known French astrophysicists: He is a Full Professor at the University of Paris, researcher at the Meudon Space Centre and since 1991 member of the Académie des Sciences. His work on infrared radiation contributed to the creation of a new window onto the universe. He became famous for having observed a total Sun Eclipse on board a Concorde, travelling at 2.2 times the speed of sound which made it possible for him keep up with the shadow of the Moon on the Earth thus extending the duration of the Eclipse he saw to an hour and a quarter, when normally it would not have exceeded 3-4 minutes. He was also a pioneer of adaptive optics which, tank to a computer can adapt telescopes in real time so as to improve the image. Pierre Léna is also very interested in the popularization of science. In cooperation Nobel Laureate Georges Charpak he started and still manages the Foundation “La main à la pâte” (Join in) for primary lower: a science teaching and learning experience based approach.
Infrared astronomy is a rapidly developing field of research which contributes to our understanding of how stars and planetary systems are formed and the properties of the nebulosas scattered throughout the Universe. The future space telescope which will succeed Hubble in 2018 has been designed to improve infrared performance.

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