Who is this Hubble guy anyway? The big bang and the expanding universe, from the 1920s to today
Date: Wednesday 19th May, 2027
Time: 16:00 – 17:30
Location: Main Hall, Whickham School, NE16 5AR
Overview
In 1924, Edwin Hubble measured the distance to the Andromeda galaxy, showing the universe was more than the nearby stars – instead it was made of countless “island universes”. We now know these as galaxies. By 1929 he had shown that the distant galaxies were all moving away from us, and concluded the universe was expanding. These two world-shattering discoveries changed our view of the universe forever. Astronomy evolved into “cosmology”, the study of the large scale structure and history of the entire universe.
In this lecture, we’ll explore how he did it, what it meant for our universe, and what we’ve learned since then. The last 100 years in cosmology will be brought right up to date and we’ll discuss the biggest open problem: the “Hubble tension” and what it means for our understanding of the whole universe.
Image credit: Johan Hagermeyer
Bookings
Bookings are not yet open for this lecture