The Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

When:

May 20, 2009 7:00 pm

Time Zone:

(GMT-8:00) America: Los Angeles

Location:

Smithwick Theater Foothill College, El-Monte Rd. & 280, Los Altos, CA 94022 | Map It!

Dr. Patricia Burchat of Stanford University will
give a non-technical, illustrated talk on:

The Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy

as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College,
El Monte Road and Freeway 280,
in Los Altos Hills, California.

Free and open to the public.
Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for
more information and driving directions.

No background in science will be required for
this talk.  Seating is first come, first served.
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A scientific revolution in our understanding of
the universe is under way. In the last decade or so,
astronomers have been forced to accept two mysterious
observations.  About a quarter of the universe is
made of "dark matter," which attracts things with its
gravity, but is otherwise invisible. And roughly two-thirds
of the universe is composed of "dark energy," which
causes space itself to expand at an ever-increasing rate.
That means only a small fraction of the universe is
made of ordinary matter -- the stuff we understand!
In this non-technical presentation, Dr. Burchat will explore
the evidence for the dark side of the cosmos, and the
experiments that are being developed to investigate this
dark matter and energy further.

Patricia Burchat is Chair of the Physics Department at
Stanford University.  She studies matter and antimatter
created at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC),
and the bending of light by the gravity of massive clusters
of galaxies far away. She was granted a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 2005 and was appointed as a Bass University
Fellow in Undergraduate Education in 2004.  In 2007,
Prof. Burchat was awarded the Walter J. Gores Award
for excellence in teaching.

The lecture is co-sponsored by:
* NASA Ames Research Center
* The Foothill College Astronomy Program
* The SETI Institute
* The Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

This talk is part of the local events celebrating the International
Year of Astronomy in 2009.

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Past Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are now available
in MP3 format at:
 http://www.astrosociety.org/education/podcast/index.html