Dr. James Peebles (2019 Nobel laureate)

"The Expanding Universe: What We Know and Don't Know”

Registration is not required but is helpful for planning purposes. Register here!

Dr. Peebles will give his lecture at 4PM in the Amphitheatre at the AT&T Hotel, followed by audience Q&A. This event will also be streamed live through Microsoft Teams (program not required; link will be provided closer to the event date).

Abstract: We have good evidence that the universe we see around us is not forever. The universe started expanding from a hot dense state known as the Big Bang. The universe still is expanding and cooling, leaving fossil evidence from what happened as the universe expanded. These fossils are the evidence that our universe really is evolving. Yet the theory of the expanding universe is incomplete. I will explain what we know and do not know; so many questions remain. What was the Universe doing before it was expanding? What is the dark matter that dominates the mass of the Universe? Steven Weinberg's research on particle physics introduced the idea of dark matter, but we still do not fully understand its interplay with the Standard Model of Particle Theory that Weinberg did so much to establish. We are leaving fascinating problems for research by new generations of scientists.