The Black Sheep Pub
247 S. 17th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
6:00pm
Dillon BroutPhD Candidate and NASA Einstein Fellow, University of Pennsylvania
“Shedding Light on Dark Energy and the Current Crisis in Cosmology”
Cosmologists, scientists who study the origin and evolution of our universe, are completely in the dark. 95% of all energy/matter in the universe remains mysterious, that being Dark Energy and Dark Matter. If this alone was not enough cause for concern, furthermore, measurements of our baby universe shortly after it was born (14 billion years ago) do not agree with measurements of the universe today. So cosmologists are in a crisis, and we are considering a complete rethinking of gravity, Einstein’s 4D space-time continuum, particle physics, or the Big Bang itself, to explain our perplexing measurements. It is entirely possible that a revolution in our understanding of the cosmos is around the corner, for which a Nobel prize will most certainly be awarded. I will discuss how state of the art projects that I’ve led at UPenn using supernovae and colliding neutron stars discovered with a telescope called the Dark Energy Camera have contributed to this heated discussion.