“Dark Energy: Nature's Heart of Darkness.” & Regular Meeting

Regular Meeting

Everyone is welcome at the free regular meeting of the Nanaimo Astronomy Society.  Come out and meet others like yourself who are curious to learn about the night sky.

Presentation

Dr. Justin Albert from the University of Victoria will be presenting on “Dark Energy: Nature's Heart of Darkness.” 

Since its surprising discovery in 1998, the observed acceleration in the expansion of the Universe has raised both questions and awe. The energy corresponding to the observed level of acceleration comprises 70% of the total energy content of the Universe, nearly three times more than regular matter and dark matter combined. Is this the "vacuum energy" constant of Einstein's general relativity? If so, why does it take on the value that it has? In this talk, I will cover how dark energy is measured, and some experiments we are doing to measure it more precisely, to see if it is a "cosmological constant," or if it might vary in time or in space.

Presenter Short Bio

Dr Justin Albert currently teaches particle physics classes at the University of Victoria.  In addition, he is a member of the ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN where he is performing an analysis of the properties of the Higgs boson and has designed a low-mass structure for an upgrade of the innermost detector in ATLAS. 

Show & Tell

At each of our meeting, one of our members will bring a different piece of telescope equipment and explain its workings to us. 

Shop & Swap

Have extra equipment to sell or swap?  Our members are welcome to bring their equipment to our Shop & Swap table where members and visitors can view and buy telescopes, eyepieces, binoculars and other equipment.  Nanaimo Astronomy Society is not responsible for your purchases and offers no warranties.

Cost

This session is free, but donations for our outreach program gratefully accepted.  Coffee, tea and cookies available for a modest donation.