Colloquium
Physics Lecture Hall
Wednesday, September 17, 2014, 4:45 pm
Tea and cookies @ 4:30 pm
Chuck Keeton
(Rutgers):
Peering into the past with gravitational lensing
Telescopes act as natural time machines: looking out in space amounts to
looking back in time. Gravitational lensing helps us see farther by
making distant galaxies appear bigger and brighter. We can detect
galaxies that would otherwise be too faint and probe structures that
would otherwise be unresolved. The key is discovering good
gravitational lens systems and understanding how they distort our view
of the background galaxies. Combining observations, theory, and
computation lets us find and focus powerful "cosmic telescopes" that
enhance our ability to study the young universe.