Free Astronomy Guest Lecture

Description

As part of the 16th annual Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, Stanford University Professor of Physics Tom Abel, Ph.D., will discuss "How Things in the Universe Came About & How They Ended Up Within Us," an illustrated, non-technical lecture Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m. in the Smithwick Theatre at Foothill College. Admission is free and the public is invited. Seating is first come, first served. Arrive early to locate parking.

Abel will take the audience on a journey through the early stages of the universe, using the latest computer animations of how the first stars formed and died, and how stars built up the first galaxies. His work has shown that the first luminous objects in the universe were very massive stars, shining one million times as brightly as our Sun. They died quickly and seeded the cosmos with the chemical elements necessary for life. Galaxies started to assemble just one hundred million years after the Big Bang, and they are still growing now. Computer simulations of these events provide remarkable insights into the early history of the cosmos.

A computational astronomer who explores cosmic history using supercomputer calculations, Abel also directs the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Abel's long-term goal is "to build a galaxy, one star at a time," via computer modeling. Among his research interests are the processes and events of "the dark ages," the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. His visualizations and simulations of dark-age events and have been featured on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the cover of National Geographic.

The free lecture series is sponsored by the Foothill College Astronomy Program, NASA Ames Research Center, SETI Institute and Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Past lectures from the series are available online at astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html. A number of past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available free on YouTube on the series' own channel at youtube.com/user/SVAstronomyLectures/.

Parking lots 1, 7 and 8 provide stair and no-stair access to the theatre. Visitors must purchase a parking permit for $3 from dispensers in any student parking lot. Dispensers accept credit/debit cards and one-dollar bills. Foothill College is located off I-280 on El Monte Road in Los Altos Hills. For more information, visit foothill.edu or call (650) 949-7888.

More Info

Link

http://foothill.edu/news/newsfmt.php?sr=2&rec_id=4299

Call

(650) 949-7888