THE UNIVERSE AND ITS CONTENTS -- SURPRISES SINCE 1968
In the past 50 years we have seen surprising results about the Universe - its structure and evolution; about galaxies - their contents and evolution; about our solar system and planets around other stars. Our ability to detect and measure the properties of distant objects has been improved with technologies we could barely.imagine 50 years ago. We will present some highlights, focusing on cosmology, dark matter, black holes, and extrasolar planets.
Participant Backgrounds
Lee Anne Mordy Willson AB ’68, PhD 1973 University of Michigan is University Professor Emerita of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University. She taught astronomy and astrophysics at Iowa State 1973-2014. Her research focused on the late stages of evolution of stars like the sun – you might call it stellar
gerontology. She has served on the boards of a number of astronomy and art non-profits and is currently expanding her involvement in the arts.
Claire Max AB ’68, PhD 1972 Princeton, is the Bachmann Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz and the Director of the University of California Observatories. She is a leader in the use of adaptive optics and laser guide stars, technologies that remove blurring caused by turbulence in the earth’s atmosphere, allowing ground-based telescopes to “see” as clearly as if they were in space. She uses these tools to observe colliding galaxies and their supermassive black holes. For this work she has been recognized in a number of awards and election to the National Academy of Sciences.