Media Release

Top US cosmologist to shed light on "dark energy"

Prize-winning Harvard astronomy professor Robert P. Kirshner [1] will visit the University of Adelaide next week to give a free public talk.

In Australia for the International Year of Astronomy [2], Professor Kirshner is speaking as part of the Keys to the Universe [3] public lecture series, presented by the University's School of Chemistry & Physics.

Professor Kirshner is an expert on exploding stars - supernovae - and what they can tell us about the most mysterious component of the universe, 'dark energy'.

He was a member of one of the teams that observed exploding stars halfway across the universe and made a stunning discovery: that the expansion of the universe is speeding up.

The finding was named the top science breakthrough of 1998 by Science [4] magazine and was a huge turning-point in our understanding of the universe.

'Dark energy' is the name astronomers have given to whatever is making the acceleration speed up - but no-one knows what it actually is.

Astronomers are trying a couple of ways to find out, however.

In his public lecture, Professor Kirshner will explain an astronomers' view of the universe, drawing on his own first-hand account of the discovery of the accelerating universe as a member of the High-Z Supernova Search Team.

He will describe how astronomers are attempting to get a handle on the nature of dark energy, which researchers believe will lead to a new understanding of physics.

An author of more 250 scientific publications, Professor Kirshner has also written for National Geographic [5], Sky & Telescope [6], Natural History [7], and Scientific American [8] magazines and is a frequent public speaker on science.

His award-winning popular-level book The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos [9] is now in paperback and has been translated into four languages.

Professor Kirshner's tour of Australia is funded by a Selby Fellowship [10] administered by the Australian Academy of Science [11].

WHAT: Keys to the Universe [12] free public lecture series:
Exploding Stars and the Accelerating Cosmos: Einstein's Blunder Undone by Professor Robert P. Kirshner (Harvard University)
WHEN: 6.30pm Thursday 19 November
WHERE: Union Hall, North Terrace Campus
COST: Free - all welcome

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Professor Robert P. Kirshner from Harvard University.
Full Image (144.26K) [16]