Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy: Steven Beckwith

The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distinguished Lecture in Astronomy

"The Dawn of Creation: The First 2 Billion Years"

Steven Beckwith, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, University of California, Office of the President

Modern technical wonders like the Hubble Space Telescope have made it possible to look back to a time when the universe looked very different than it does today, when the first galaxies were created and the universe developed structure seen as patterns in the galaxies apparent today. This years Sackler Lecture will look back to the first 2 billion years.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• uc
• ucberkeley
• university
• california
• berkeley
• 2008
• astronomy
• yt:quality=high

[ananiasacts]

@bobean991, but if religion is selectively encumbering those least able to recognize it's absurdity, then it might be a good thing for humanity overall. One way to artificially enhance our collective ability is to convince the people least likely to be helpful to opt out of participating. Perhaps it's no accident that shortly after the codification of scripture, and rise in literacy, humanity discovered the scientific method and began to seriously empower itself. Religion works like fly paper.

[kayakbruce1]

@KingJamesBible Christianity has become a cesspool of the ingnorant and angry. And you are one or the other.

[tuhinshukla]

0:23:33 few farts in a million .... lol

[deepwinter77]

@holzpusher kinda weird comment who exactly is this jesus some competing scintist or something?

[DeadInTheLivingRoom]

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

[maxwellsdaemon7]

@pseudorandomly Thanks. What if the two "dots" are, say, two stars in a binary, or a nucleus and an electron in an atom. Then stretching the space between them increases the distance, and implies an increase in potential energy, do you agree?

[pseudorandomly]

@maxwellsdaemon7

That's the wrong way to look at it. The galaxies are actually *sitting still* in space (modulo their own secular motions) and the space between them is stretching. Put two dots on a slightly-inflated balloon, and then blow up the balloon some more. The dots are now farther apart, but they aren't being dragged; they're sitting on the same bit of rubber as before, but the rubber between them has been stretched.

[maxwellsdaemon7]

@pseudorandomly Thanks for the insight. Does that mean that galaxies and planets and other objects get "dragged" by the expanding space, and doesn't this imply a force?

[pseudorandomly]

@maxwellsdaemon7

I know I'm responding to an old question, but perhaps you'll return to read my reply. I can't think how your question got flagged as spam ...

You have to define *how* you're measuring the distance to see what's going on. A ruler doesn't expand, because the electromagnetic forces holding the ruler together are stronger than the stretching of space. Timing a beam of light doesn't expand, because time (think duration of a second) is not expanding, just space. Etc.

[tousalgeriens]

good work

[saultube44]

@imontellano "your words and thoughts are useless", likewise.