Measuring the Size and Age
of the Universe
2012 Bullitt Lecture in Astronomy
Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012, 7pm
Gheens Science Hall & Rauch Planetarium, Univ. Louisville
Speaker: Kris Stanek (Ohio State)
"The
history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons." Edwin
Powell Hubble (1889 - 1953)
Starting with a surprisingly accurate measurement of the size of the
Earth by ancient Greeks, I will discuss how we gradually came to
appreciate the vast size of the Universe, and where our Solar System
fits in the cosmic history. I will then briefly discuss the future
evolution of the Solar System and the Universe.
Dr. Krzysztof (Kris) Stanek received his undergraduate degree in
astronomy from Warsaw University, Poland, followed by a Ph.D. in
astrophysics from Princeton University. He was then awarded the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship,
followed by NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship and a faculty position
at Harvard University. Currently a professor of astronomy at the
Ohio State University, Kris studies supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, very
massive stars and the size and age of the Universe.
We will record the lecture for our talk archive.
The Physics
& Astronomy
Department’s Bullitt Lecture is a free lecture aimed at the general
public. Since 2001, the
Physics & Astronomy Department’s Bullitt Lecture has presented a
distinguished astrophysicist to a Louisville audience in the Gheens
Science Hall and Rauch
Planetarium.
Gale
Christianson,
Hubble's
biographer
at
Indiana
State, Fred Espinak, an
eclipse expert at NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center, stellar astrophysicists
James Kaler of
U. Illinois, C. R. O'Dell of Vanderbilt and Caty Pilachowski of Indiana
U,
cosmologists Fang Li Zhi of Arizona, J. Richard
Gott of Princeton, Alan
Dressler of the Carnegie
Observatories, lunar experts Ferenc Pavlics of GM and the Apollo
project and Phillip Abel of NASA, Donald York and Linda Spilker have
been Bullitt Lecturers.
College
and high school students, teachers, and many others from the community
interested in
the impact and excitement that astrophysics has generated
have attended Bullitt Lectures in
large numbers. The public and members
of the University community are warmly invited!
The
Lecture is endowed through a grant from the family of William
Marshall
Bullitt, the
Solicitor General
of the United States under President
William
Howard
Taft. Here is
a brief
biography and description of his connection to the University of
Louisville.
Several of the Bullitt lectures are available in streaming (.asx)
format in
the
UL
astronomy
talk
archive.
Posters for all of the current and previous Bullitt Lectures are
available:
2001
Gale
Christianson,
"Edwin
Hubble:
An Astronomer's Life"
2002
Fred
Espinak,
"Solar
Eclipses
and Mysteries of the Sun"
2003
James
Kaler,
"The
Life
and Death of Stars"
2004
Fang
Li
Zhi,
"Dark
Energy in the Universe"
2005
J.
Richard
Gott,
"A
Map of the Universe"
2006
Alan
Dressler,
"Galaxies,
Stars,
Planets and Life: the Birth of the
Modern Universe"
Dr. Dressler
was interviewed on Louisville's WFPL (NPR) radio on
April 20, 2006 on State of Affairs, which has an
archive edition of the radio interview.
2007
C.R.
O'Dell,
"Creating
the
Hubble Space Telescope"
2008
Caty
Pilachowski,
"The
Star
Cities of the Milky Way"
flier
Dr. Pilachowski was
interviewed on Louisville's WFPL (NPR) radio on October 29, 2008 on State of Affairs, which has an
archive edition of the radio interview.
2009
Ferenc
Pavlics
and
Phillip
Abel, "40 Years: Lunar Exploration"
flier
Mr. Pavlics and Dr.
Abel were
interviewed on Louisville's WFPL (NPR) radio on October 8, 2009 on State of Affairs, which has an
archive edition of the radio interview.
2010
Donald
York, "The History of the Telescope and Its Relation to Culture"
2011
Linda Spilker, "Cassini-Huygens explores the Saturn System:
Recent Discoveries and Science Highlights"
Links
to
other
Bullitt
Lectures
and Bullitt book collections:
Bullitt Lecture in
Mathematics
Bullitt Lecture in Fine Arts
William
Marshall
Bullitt
Collection
of
Rare Mathematics and Astronomy Books
More
on the Bullitt Collection of Books at UofL
