Tamara Davis: L'ORÉAL For Women in Science Fellow, Australia 2009

The stuff we can see in the night sky is makes up just four per cent of the Universe. The rest consists of dark matter and dark energy, but what these are made of remains a mystery. Tamara Davis will use supernovae to find dark energy.

The discovery in 1998 that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating required a rethink of cosmology. Tamara is trying to put the pieces back together again. She will use the new Australian Skymapper telescope to find hundreds of supernovae and use these to detect the influence of dark energy on gravity.

Supernovae are extremely bright stellar explosions. Because we know how bright they are we can use them as standard candles to accurately measure distance and motion across the Universe, Tamara says.

video: Jerome Pelletier [www.steppingstone.com.au]

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tamara davis
• l'oreal
• for women in science
• australia

[armchairastronaut78]

Wonderful! What a lovely lady!

[bejius]

What a corrupt world we live in.... L'ORÉAL buys credibility from scientist.

[cameronsstone]

Well done, Tam!