Mon, 13 Mar
|Lecture Theatre
How fast is the Universe expanding ?
by Dr Matt Bothwell. Around a century ago, Edwin Hubble made one of the most important discoveries in astronomical history: the Universe is expanding. Ever since Hubble, understanding exactly how fast the Universe is expanding has been one of the most important tasks in cosmology.
Time & Location
13 Mar 2023, 19:15 – 21:00
Lecture Theatre, Romney Rd, London SE10 9NF, UK
About the Event
Today, a puzzle: why do different experiments disagree about how fast our Universe is expanding? And what might this mean for the future of physics?
This talk will discuss the ongoing 'Hubble tension' (which many people are calling a 'crisis' for cosmology!)
Bio: Dr Matt Bothwell is an astronomer and science communicator based at the Institute of Astronomy and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and, before taking up science communication, was a postdoctoral researcher at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, and the Astrophysics group at the University of Cambridge. As Public Astronomer at the University of Cambridge, Matt gives public talks and workshops on almost any area of astronomy to audiences of a wide range of ages and demographics.
His research interests are centred around understanding galaxy evolution across time and, when not doing outreach, Matt is an observational astronomer who uses a range of state-of-the-art facilities to study the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time.
Matt’s popular astronomy book, “The Invisible Universe: Why There’s More to Reality than Meets the Eye,” was published in November 2021. Matt has kindly agreed to sign copies of his book after his lecture. (Copies will be available to purchase from the NMM bookshop at the event.)