On Monday evening, we took nine Year 10 girls to the University of Leicester for the Orbyts Conference. Orbyts is a national programme connecting pupils with astrophysics researchers, to provide underrepresented students with the opportunity to assist a PhD researcher in an area of their research project.

The girls have been working on their project for 2 hours after school most Thursdays for the past 4 months so it was really great to see the product of all their hard work!

They’ve worked through coding using Python and researching degree level Astrophysics content such as solar wind, the structure of the magnetosphere, and observing X-ray emissions using data from various satellites such as ACE, WIND and XMM-Newton. It really was university degree level stuff, beyond what is done at not only GCSE but also in A-level Physics. To be able to work through complex coding, obtain plots and data sets within this topic is a massive achievement, especially at this stage in their education! 

Plus, to stand in a lecture theatre and speak to a large audience, some of whom were experts within Astrophysics, is not something most people would be able to do! They spoke so well; very clearly and very confidently. Well done girls!