Astroclub Lecture: The Accelerating Universe: Einstein's Blunder Undone
Robert P. Kirshner, Clowes Professor of Science, Harvard University, 2015 Wolf Prize in Physics Laureate
27 May 2015, 19:00
Shenkar Building, Lev Hall
Abstract:
One hundred years ago, Einstein famously introduced an extra term into his equations to describe a static universe. A decade later, when astronomers found the Universe is not static, but expanding, he discarded that "cosmological constant." In the past 20 years, astronomers, including Prof. Kirshner, have found that cosmic expansion is speeding up, driven by a mysterious “dark energy” whose nature we do not fully understand, but which makes up ~70% of the mass-energy in the Universe and which bears an uncanny resemblance to Einstein's idea.
