THE 79TH COMPTON LECTURE SERIES
Every Saturday morning beginning April 5, through June 7, 2014; lectures start at 11:00 a.m. (No lecture on May 24th [Memorial Day Weekend])
Lecturer: Elise Jennings, Kavli Postdoctoral Scholar and Simons Foundation Fellow, Enrico Fermi Institute
Topic: "Cosmic Cartography - Exploring an Expanding Universe"
Kersten Physics Teaching Center
5720 S. Ellis Avenue, Room 106
Chicago, IL 60637
The discovery that the expansion of the Universe is being accelerated by a mysterious force that cosmologists call "Dark Energy" has had an immense impact and is the most exciting area of research in Cosmology today. The 2011 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three astronomers who found the first direct evidence of this acceleration by observing the brightness of exploding stars in the Universe. These astonishing observations have ignited a race towards an even bigger discovery - what is Dark Energy? Unravelling the nature of Dark Energy is one of the most important problems facing cosmologists and will answer profound questions about fundamental physics in our Universe.
In these lectures Dr. Jennings will describe the cutting-edge of current research which tries to make sense of Dark Energy and the accelerating expansion. Uncovering the nature of Dark Energy will require exciting cosmic detective work gathering evidence, formulating theories and testing new ideas in the largest laboratory available to us - the Universe. The lectures require no mathematical or scientific background; just bring your curiosity.
Additional information can be found here.