18 September 2008

Speaker: J. Richard Bond (CITA)

Title: Gruber Prize Lecture "The Cosmology of Now and Then Through the First Light" -- Radcliffe Gymnasium

Abstract: Light from the earliest days of the universe still surrounds us today. Only 370,000 years after the Big Bang created protons and electrons, those particles combined to form hydrogen atoms, releasing a burst of energy. We see that relic energy as the cosmic microwave background, or "first light." It shows the earliest structures that grew to become today's galactic superclusters. Today, learn how the cosmic microwave background and other lines of evidence point to a Universe more wondrous than we ever could have imagined - a Universe where the stars and galaxies we see make up only 4 percent of everything there is. The Gruber Prize Lecture will be held at the Radcliffe Gymnasium at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 10 Garden St.