A scientist who helped prove the Big Bang theory comes to Dublin for the Academy Times lecture. Dick Ahlstromreports
A Nobel prize winner who helped provide powerful evidence for the Big Bang theory comes to Dublin next month to deliver an Academy Times lecture. Proof that the universe arrived with an incomprehensibly large bang came via the Cosmic Background Explorer (Cobe) satellite, a project seen through from its earliest days by the speaker, Dr John C Mather.
Mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics with George Smoot for the Cobe work and he arrives in Dublin on June 12th to talk about what the discovery means.
Deciphering the Big Bangis the title chosen by Mather for a lively presentation that will compact the 13.5 billion-year-long history of the universe into the proverbial nutshell.
It will bring the audience from the moment of the Big Bang on through our current position in an ever faster expanding universe and eventually to what may end up being a cold and bleak future as matter spreads further out into the cosmos and stars eventually burn out.
He will discuss how the Big Bang could have produced an Earth where sentient beings can live and how those beings are now discovering their cosmic history.
Mather was project scientist for Nasa's Cobe satellite, sent into orbit to measure the heat radiation left over from the Big Bang. The Cobe collaborators managed to detect the faint afterglow of this enormous event, the microwave background radiation, which has chilled over the billions of years to a mere 2.725 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.
The wide-ranging talk will also cover Einstein's biggest mistake, show how Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was expanding, and will include information about the next great orbiting telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) set for launch in 2013.
Mather is a senior astrophysicist in the observational cosmology lab at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre. His research centres on infrared astronomy and cosmology.
He is also senior project scientist for the JWST project and leads its science team.
NASA is building the JWST in collaboration with ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Significantly, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies is directly involved, as part of a European Consortium, in developing one of the four main instruments on board JWST the Mid-Infrared Instrument.
With Irish involvement in mind, Nasa, ESA and the CSA have decided to hold their review of the JWST project in Dublin. About 300 people are expected to attend the meeting which takes place at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham during mid-June and the institute will act as hosts.
Attendance at the meeting is by invitation only, but as part of the event, the institute has arranged to have a full-scale model of the JWST installed at the Royal Hospital in time for the meeting. This huge model, measuring more than 24m by 12m by 12m, will remain on display at the Royal Hospital for public inspection until the end of July. Irish company Omega Air sponsored the model, paying for it to be brought here and placed at the Royal Hospital.
The Academy Times lectures are jointly organised and sponsored by the Royal Irish Academy, The Irish Timesand by Depfa Bank. They are geared to a general audience, so no specialist knowledge is required to enjoy Mather's presentation. This lecture is also co-sponsored by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, which organised Mather's visit.
The Academy Times lecture takes place at 6.30pm on Tuesday June 12th in the Burke lecture theatre, Arts Block, Trinity College, Dublin.
The lecture is free, but places are limited, however, so must be booked. This can be done on line at the Academy's website, www.ria.ie and a limited number of tickets will also be available by contacting the academy at 01-6762570.
Separately, Mathers will speak at one of the institute's own statutory public lectures.
Entitled Finding Our Origins with the James Webb Space Telescope, this lecture will focus on how the telescope will help to answer questions relating to the formation of the universe.
It takes place on Thursday, June 14th at 7.30pm in the Clinton Auditorium, Irish Global Institute at University College Dublin.