A Lecture in 2 Parts: 1. ORBYTS: Inspirational Research Partnerships for School Students from Historically-Excluded Groups and 2. Extraordinary X-rays from the Outer Planets
Authors: Dunn William 
Published: March 2021

&lt;p&gt;The lecture will be split into two parts:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. ORBYTS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the UK, physics faces chronic diversity issues, shortfalls in subject-specialist teachers and 20% lower uptake beyond age 16 than in the 1980s. ORBYTS is a movement that partners researchers with schools to involve school children in active scientific research. Since 2017, ORBYTS has grown to 30 school-researcher partnerships, with 75% of ORBYTS school pupils from groups historically-excluded from physics. While the first research projects were exoplanets focussed, we now have researchers working with schools on: protostellar formation, molecular spectroscopy, planetary science, plasma physics, galaxy characterisation, AI, quasars, supernovae and more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through involvement in research and partnerships with relatable science role models, ORBYTS is providing positive change in school students&amp;#8217; attainment and is dispelling harmful stereotypes. Schools involved in the programme at age 14-16 report 100% increases in post-16 uptake of physics by girls and students from more than 40 ethnicities. Since 2017, the programme has enabled more than 150 school students to author published papers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We welcome contact from anyone interested. We hope to continue to sustainably expand the programme to new researcher-school partnerships that can help make science more inclusive for all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. X-ray Observations of the Outer Planets&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A revolution is happening in the field of planetary X-rays. In the last few years, there have been unprecedented campaigns totalling hundreds of hours of observations by the flagship NASA and ESA X-ray observatories (Chandra and XMM-Newton). Currently, ground-breaking X-ray instruments are travelling to Mercury on BepiColombo and soon to observe the Earth on the ESA/CAS SMILE spacecraft. This is shifting X-ray studies of planets from an enigmatic niche to an essential component of our multi-waveband exploration of other worlds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, what do X-ray images of planets look like and what do they reveal about environments, properties and processes across our solar system? I provide an overview history of the field and highlight recent discoveries, with a particular focus on the outer planets and their moons. This will include recent observations in tandem with NASA&amp;#8217;s paradigm-shifting Juno spacecraft, that reveal the physical processes responsible for some of Jupiter&amp;#8217;s spectacular auroral displays and bizarre quasiperiodic pulsations. I also touch on the recent discovery of X-ray emissions from Uranus, before looking to what we can expect from the coming years.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Finally, I connect the two parts of the lecture by showcasing planetary X-ray research by school students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Research Collaborators: &lt;/strong&gt;Z.Yao, G.Branduardi-Raymont, D.Grodent, G.R.Gladstone, R.Kraft, L.Ray, A.Wibisono, D.Weigt, E.Woodfield, A.Sulaiman, W.Kurth, S.Nulsen, C.Jackman, S.Elliott, G.Hospodarsky, M.Imai, S.Kotsiaros, G.Clark, B.Bonfond, K.Haewsantati, I.J.Rae, H.Manners, P.Rodriguez, J-U.Ness, B.Mauk, R.Ebert, D.X.Pan, B.B.Ni, R.L.Guo, F.Allegrini, R.Desai, S.Bolton, E.McClain, B.Snios, G.Tremblay&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ORBYTS Researchers: &lt;/strong&gt;M.Fuller, H.Osborne, A.Portas, K.Chubb, L.McKemmish, C.Sousa Silva, T.Rivlin, M.Gorman, M.Tessenyi, G.Tinetti, J.Tennyson,&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;J.Holdship, L.Offer, M.Niculescu-Duvaz, T.James, R.Jaworek, R.Meyer, K.Kade, J.Smutna, S.Brannan,&amp;#160; A.Francis, K.Putri, F.Hardy, H.Andrews, M.Rickard, D.De Mijolla, Q.Changeat, B.Edwards, M.Saraf, M.Morvan, S.Wright, A.Updahyay, O.Katz, B.Edwards, R.French, M.Mooney, C-L.Liew-Cain, A.Sheppard, E.Armstrong, G.Yip, F.Azad, J.Sandhu, A.Smith, M.Walach, W.Gould, A.Bader, C.Ho, M.Bakrania, P.Patel, Q.Afghan, W.Somogyi, C.Regan, M.Mahmoud, A.Wibisono, S.Grafton Waters, F.Staples, S.Bentley, C.Watts, I.J.Rae, A.Robson, G.Branduardi-Raymont&lt;/p&gt;