The next edition of Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy is this coming Satuday! Here are the details:
Title: The Most Distant Explosion: Gamma Ray Burst 090423
“Artist’s illustration of a bright gamma-ray burst”
Date: Saturday, May 16, 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: On April 23, 2009, the Swift gamma ray satellite detected light from an explosion that was measured to have a redshift of 8.2—making it the most distant individual object we’ve observed, and evidence for the earliest star we know of that formed after the Big Bang. In this talk, I’ll describe what gamma ray bursters are, and how it is that we can measure how far away they are. I’ll also talk about the significance of this discovery when it comes to understanding the formation of the first stars and galaxies in our Universe.
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. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. 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-web15.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2697156&date=1242457200
