Download Probing the Early Universe with Distant Galaxies

Probing the Early Universe with Distant
Galaxies
by Dr Joseph Caruana
of the Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam
Date: Thursday 7th of March 2013
Time: 15:00 – 16:00
Venue: Chemistry Lecture Room (CLR) in the Chemistry Building
Abstract: The last few years have witnessed rapid growth in our knowledge of the early
universe as we have pushed the frontier in exploring ever farther galaxies. The installation of
Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009 opened up the
possibility of discovering galaxies in the first billion years of the universe's history. Some of
these galaxies have been followed up with observations undertaken from the ground to obtain
their spectra and infer further clues about the universe during its infancy. In particular, a lot
of effort has been aimed at investigating one of the outstanding problems of modern
observational cosmology - understanding the Epoch of Reionisation, which is when matter in
the universe became ionised. This phase marked the end of the universe's Dark Ages and the
universe became transparent to radiation. During this talk I will give an overview of the
topic, describe the results of my work in the field and outline the many open questions that
remain to be answered by future observations.
Attendance for the seminar is free of charge and everyone is welcome.
The information can also be found on Facebook