Surrey and GAS Stargazing October 2026

Join us this October for “Small galaxies, big mysteries: What dwarf galaxies reveal about dark matter and the cosmic web”, a talk exploring how tiny galaxies shed light on some of the Universe’s biggest questions. Afterwards, enjoy stargazing through our telescopes, weather permitting.

Our most successful model describing the Universe predicts that 85% of all matter is entirely invisible. Yet it plays a crucial role in shaping the cosmos and is an essential ingredient of every galaxy in the Universe. We call this mysterious substance dark matter. We can’t see it, and we haven’t found it in any lab experiments on Earth.* So, how do you study something you can’t see? You look at how it affects the things you can. Some of the best places to look are the tiniest galaxies in the Universe: dwarf galaxies. These faint, ancient systems are packed full of dark matter, and they are found throughout the cosmos. In this talk we’ll explore how these diminutive galaxies reveal the hidden structure of the Universe, and how new observations in space *(and on Earth) are helping us uncover dark matter’s secrets, one small galaxy at a time.