Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2015. 7:30 PM.
Location: Mudd Chemistry's Braun Auditorium, 333 Campus Drive.
32nd Annual Astronomy Porgram's Bunyan lecture with speaker Professor Francois R. Bouchet. Cosmology enjoyed a remarkable development over the last century, which revealed that galaxies like our own are not distributed at random into space, but rather delineate a complex structure reminiscent of the skeletal framework of a sponge! We now have developed a compelling model of how these large scale structures developed over time, and trace their origin to the earliest moment of the Big Bang. Most effective into this lightning progress has been the study of the background light called the Cosmic microwave background. This residual light, from early times when the universe was hot, dense, and very homogeneous, bear witness to the infancy of these structures. Its study allows us to determine the content of the Universe and to study the process which initiated their growth. It brings amazing confirmation of ideas put forward in the 80's and opens a window on physics in a range of scales, time and energies which was hitherto inaccessible. The most powerful tool we used so far in this endeavor is the Planck satellite mission which we entirely devoted to the study of this residual light, and which released its latest results just a few weeks ago. As one of the actor in this odyssey, I will share with you our excitement and take you on a tour to the fringes of time and space.
Location: Mudd Chemistry's Braun Auditorium, 333 Campus Drive.
32nd Annual Astronomy Porgram's Bunyan lecture with speaker Professor Francois R. Bouchet. Cosmology enjoyed a remarkable development over the last century, which revealed that galaxies like our own are not distributed at random into space, but rather delineate a complex structure reminiscent of the skeletal framework of a sponge! We now have developed a compelling model of how these large scale structures developed over time, and trace their origin to the earliest moment of the Big Bang. Most effective into this lightning progress has been the study of the background light called the Cosmic microwave background. This residual light, from early times when the universe was hot, dense, and very homogeneous, bear witness to the infancy of these structures. Its study allows us to determine the content of the Universe and to study the process which initiated their growth. It brings amazing confirmation of ideas put forward in the 80's and opens a window on physics in a range of scales, time and energies which was hitherto inaccessible. The most powerful tool we used so far in this endeavor is the Planck satellite mission which we entirely devoted to the study of this residual light, and which released its latest results just a few weeks ago. As one of the actor in this odyssey, I will share with you our excitement and take you on a tour to the fringes of time and space.