Cosmology Center Professor Asantha Cooray will head one of the three main science investigations by SPHEREx, NASA’s newly selected Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer mission. The two-year, $242 million SPHEREx is targeted to launch in 2023. Prof. Cooray’s group will use the telescope-based craft to make measurements to determine how galaxies formed throughout the history of the universe. Astronomers will also employ SPHEREx to study water and ice in the Milky Way to learn how planets come to possess oxygen and other molecules crucial for life. Additionally, the mission will aid in a statistical analysis of the nearby galaxy distribution to shed light on the physics of cosmic inflation, the rapid expansion of the universe during its birth. “All three of these scientific pursuits will be possible with SPHEREx because of how it will measure the spectrum of the night sky from visible to infrared light,” Cooray said. “When it launches in a few years, our hope is that it will help us get a better handle on when and how the first stars and galaxies formed and how many there were, as well as understand whether they formed everywhere in the universe or in particular locations for some reason.”

Over 1,000 people were estimated to have attended the viewing of the Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse at UC Irvine, preceded by a lecture on “The 25 Billion Planets in Our Galaxy,” by Prof. Paul Robertson. The moon was closer than average: “Super;” it was eclipsed by the Earth giving it a reddish hue: “Blood;” and the “Wolf Moon” was the first full moon of the New Year, a name given by Native Americans according to the Farmer’s Almanac.

This podcast is a collaboration between the Director of the Center for Cosmology, Prof. Kev Abazajian, teaming up with filmmaker and producer Michael Sean Wright. It’s called Space Chunks, where we shine light on dark matter and all things physics & cosmology. The first episode is on the November 16 redefinition of the kilogram based on fundamental constants. It’s on Soundcloud, and will be available on iTunes Podcasts & Pocket Casts soon!

We are excited to announce the inaugural public talk for the Evans Visiting Scholar Program, by Dr. Alex Drlica-Wagner, June 12 at 7 pm, CalIT2 Auditorium.

Dark Matter and Tiny Galaxies

Dark matter is a mysterious component of Universe that possesses roughly six times more mass than all of the ordinary matter we are familiar with. Over the last century, astronomical observations have strongly motivated the existence of dark matter; however, we still know relatively little about it. One way that we can learn more about dark matter is by studying the smallest and darkest galaxies. These galaxies contain hundreds of times more dark matter than ordinary matter, thus making them unique laboratories for studying this mysterious substance. In this talk, I will present the evidence for the existence of dark matter and discuss how tiny galaxies can help us understand the dark side of the Universe.

Dr. Drlica-Wagner is the Schramm Fellow in Particle Astrophysics at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and is working on characterizing a whole new class of tiny galaxies which orbit around our own Milky Way.

Please RSVP at this link.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy and Center for Cosmology is pleased to host Dr. Drlica-Wagner as a long-term visitor thanks to generous support from John and Ruth Ann Evans.