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Star gazing

1 April 2009

 

This year has been designated by UNICEF and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as the International Year of Astronomy.

Monash is playing a leading role, beginning this week with a public lecture by internationally-recognised astronomer Professor Brian Schmidt.

A Federation Fellow at Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory, Professor Schmidt is best known for his work using distant stellar explosions - supernovae - to measure the expansion of the universe.

In 1998 Professor Schmidt's team presented evidence for the accelerating expansion of the universe, a result that won them the $500,000 Gruber Cosmology prize, as well as Science Magazine's Breakthrough of the Year.

In Thursday's public lecture Professor Schmidt will describe the origin and evolution of the universe and how astronomers have used observations to trace its history back more than 13 billion years.

Professor Schmidt will also detail new experiments that are monitoring the struggle between dark energy and dark matter, trying to better understand these elusive components of the universe.

Dr Duncan Galloway from the School of Physics and School of Mathematical Sciences said the lecture is the first in a series that will coincide with viewing nights.

"This is a terrific opportunity for non-astronomers to find out what we do and don't know about our universe, from one of the foremost researchers in the field," Dr Galloway said.

Other events planned throughout the year include an exhibition covering the past, present and future of astronomy at the Monash Science Centre from mid April.

The lecture will be held at 7 pm on Thursday 2 April at the Clayton campus in Building 25, lecture theatre S3.

For more information, see the International Year of Astronomy website.