Programme of Events
Event Detail
Cosmic perspectives: from planets to the multiverse
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
6:00pm
19 November 2012
Theatre L, Newman Building,
Arts Block, UCD
Contact:
[email protected] website
Cosmic perspectives: from planets to the multiverse
by Professor Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, O.M., F.R.S.
The 2012 Statutory Public Lecture of the School of Theoretical Physics (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) is in association with the School of Cosmic Physics and it will take place in UCD on Monday 19 November at 6:00pm.
The lecture entitled “Cosmic perspectives: from planets to the multiverse ” will be given by Professor Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, O.M., F.R.S.
It will be held in Theatre L, Newman Building, Arts Block, UCD.
Astronomers have made astonishing progress in probing our cosmic environment. We can trace cosmic history from some mysterious ‘beginning’ nearly 14 billion years ago, and understand in outline the emergence of atoms, galaxies, stars and planets — and how, on at least one planet, life emerged and developed a complex biosphere of which we are part.
Unmanned spacecraft have visited the other planets of our Solar System (and some of their moons), beaming back pictures of varied and distinctive worlds. And, probing far beyond our Solar System, telescopes, have revealed a vast universe, containing billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars.
An exciting development in the last decade has been the realisation that many other stars are orbited by retinues of planets — some resembling our Earth.
But these advances pose new questions: What does the long-range future hold? How widespread is life in our cosmos? Should we be surprised that the physical laws permitted the emergence of complexity? and: Is physical reality even more extensive than the domain that our telescopes can probe? This illustrated lecture will attempt to address such issues.
