You’re invited to the next installment of the public seminar series Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy!

Title: The Discovery of the Accelerating Universe

Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009

Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)

Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/

Abstract: In 1998, two teams of astronomers observing supernovae discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. The speaker, Dr. Knop, was on one of the two teams, working with Saul Perlmutter. In this talk, I will describe just how it is that you can measure the expansion history of the Universe by observing distant exploding stars, and what surprising things we saw in our results that indicated to us that the expansion of the Universe was in fact accelerating. At the end, I’ll briefly mention some things about “dark energy,” the mysterious substance that is causing this surprising universal acceleration.

This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).

For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/

Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web11.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2538906&date=1238828400