Stargazing Lecture

Stargazing is dependent on clear weather, but lecture and Q&A happen regardless. Event will occur in-person, with lecture and Q&A additionally live-streamed on YouTube.

For remote viewers, the event will be live-streamed here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/i--KsRVsbuk

8:00–8:45 p.m. - Public Lecture
8:45–9:45 p.m. - Panel Q&A and Guided Stargazing

Almost a hundred years ago, astronomers on Mount Wilson, up the hill from Altadena, discovered that the universe is expanding. Albert Einstein didn't believe it at first. Trace that expansion backward and you arrive at the Big Bang, whose faint afterglow still fills the sky. But that light only takes us back so far: for its first 380,000 years, the universe was a glowing fog that no telescope can see through. To look earlier, we may need to listen instead, for gravitational waves, the ripples in space and time that Einstein predicted and Caltech's LIGO first detected in 2015. Come hear how we might catch the faint echo of the universe's first moments. Along the way, we'll explore how gravity bends time, why your head ages faster than your feet, and why, years after many thought cosmology was "solved," it remains full of mysteries: What are dark matter and dark energy? And why does space have three dimensions?

About the Series

Stargazing Lectures are free lectures at a public level followed by a Q&A panel and guided stargazing with telescopes (weather permitting). All events are held at the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Caltech and are free and open to all. No reservations are needed. Lectures are 30 minutes; stargazing and panel Q&A last 60 minutes. Stay only as long as you want.

Stargazing is only possible with clear skies, but the lecture and panel Q&A take place regardless of weather.

For directions, weather updates, and more information, please visit: http://outreach.astro.caltech.edu.