Lecture: Viewing the Universe in light of Gravitational Lensing (Cancelled)

UPDATE: The SAS Lecture tonight has been cancelled at short notice due to severe weather and transport difficulties of lecturer getting to wetlands.

It will be re-schedule for later date.

The SAS are still opening up as normal from 7 pm. It strongly suggested to use the main car park due to weather conditions. 

Einstein’s theory of general relativity famously unified gravity with the geometry of the Universe, making two remarkable predictions, that light-rays take a straight path through space and that mass bends the space surrounding it.

Together, this means that where there is mass, light appears bent, a phenomenon known today as gravitational lensing and a tool used by astrophysicists to study almost everything in the Universe; from planets on stars neighbouring the Sun to weighing the entire observable Universe.

Durham University’s Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy James Nightingale will give a run-through of the exciting and innovative ways that astronomers are using gravitational lensing to obtain a new and unique view of the Universe and speculate how it may hold our best hope of one day disproving Einstein’s famous theory.

When Where

• Date:  Sunday 21st January 2018,
• Time: 7pm.
• Speaker: James Nightingale (Research Associate at the Durham University’s Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy).
• Venue: Will take place at the Cygnus Observatory (WWC Discovery Room).

Our speaker

Our speaker is James Nightingale, a Research Associate Durham University’s Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy.