Carcassonne. French astronaut Philippe Perrin present for Explor’Science

Exploring space, oceans and the brain. This is the program for more than 1,500 Carcassonne students, from primary to high school, without forgetting the numerous visitors expected during the three days of the Explor’Science festival, from October 7 to 9, an event organized by the City of Carcassonne in as part of the Science Festival. For the occasion, the Odeum will host several conferences, while the Halles Prosper-Montagné will be transformed into a place inspired by the Palais de la Découverte in Paris.

Numerous workshops will be offered under the halls: contemplating the constellations under an inflatable planetarium, testing copies of the suits from the Apollo or Artemis lunar missions, making fire and tools like humans did 450,000 years ago, carrying out an investigation technical and scientific police, or even manufacturing 100,000 volt lightning bolts and generating lightning.

Several conferences are therefore also scheduled, with eminent researchers and scientists, such as Benoît Pujol and Sébastien Pinel, respectively research director at CNRS and biologist at Criobe, and hydrologist at Cefrem, who will lead a debate on the impact of global warming on marine biodiversity, October 7. On the same theme, David Salas y Mélia will offer a conference-debate on the impact of global warming on oceans and glaciers. The latter is a climatologist at the CNRM.

The Explor’Science festival will also welcome a distinguished guest in the person of Philippe Perrin: he is the 9th French person to have spent time in space, and notably participated in the space shuttle Endeavor mission in 2002, during which he carried out several spacewalks to participate in the assembly of the international space station. On the occasion of the Carcassonne science festival, he will host a conference on the theme Living and working in weightlessness, on Tuesday October 8 at the Odéum. He will also be present at the Halles Prosper Montagné, and the bookseller Breithaupt will welcome him on Tuesday October 8 at 5:30 p.m. for a signing session of his book Weightlessalongside Serge Chevrel, planetologist at Irap, who will also dedicate his book, Missions Apolloand will also give a conference on Monday October 7 on the theme From the exploration of the Moon to the detection of exoplanets.

If time permits, the Ciel des Corbières association will offer, still as part of the Science Festival, an observation of the starry sky, the planets of the solar system, in particular Saturn whose position allows us to see part of the rings, Jupiter and its moons or nebulae. Meet at Lac de la Cavayère from 9 p.m.