Event

CANCELLED AstroPhysics Public Lecture: "Our Extravagant Universe: The Undiscovery of Cosmic Deceleration"

Wednesday, February 19, 2020 19:00to20:00

Montreal Neurological Institute Jeanne Timmins Amphitheatre, 3801 rue University, Montreal, QC, H3A 2B4, CA

Price:

Free

EVENT CANCELLED: Due to unforeseen circumstances our AstroPhysics Public Lecture this coming Wednesday February 19th has been cancelled. Thank you all so much for your interest! We look forward to seeing you at our future events.

A free public lecture starting at 7pm sharp on Wednesday, February 19th at the Jeanne Timmins Amphitheatre (3801 rue University) by Moore Foundation Chief Program Officer Robert Kirshner.

Astronomers have known about the expansion of the Universe for nearly one hundred years. Twenty years ago, we set out to use exploding stars to measure gravity’s predicted effect: the slowing down of cosmic expansion. To our astonishment, the measurements showed the expansion of the universe was speeding up! This astonishing (un)-discovery of cosmic acceleration is now confirmed by many independent methods. We attribute it to a “dark energy” that dominates the Universe whose nature is a deep mystery at the heart of physics.

Come to the lecture to get a firsthand accounting of this cosmic mystery from one of the world's leading experts!

Robert Kirshner

Robert Kirshner joined the Moore Foundation as Chief Program Officer in 2015 after 31 years as Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. He uses supernova explosions to measure the history of cosmic expansion. At last count, he is a co-author of 391 refereed papers that have been cited 55,795 times. This work has led to many prizes, including the 2014 Breakthrough Prize for the High-Z Supernova team, the 2015 Wolf Prize in Physics for Kirshner, and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for two of his graduate students.