Calendar of Events

Speaker:  Suzanne Staggs, Princeton University

Abstract: The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is leftover radiation from the big bang.  The universe was only 400,000 years old when the CMB was released.  It is nearly 14 billion years old now.   Maps of the CMB carry clues about the fundamental nature of the universe – its ingredients, its history, its dynamics and what causes them, and even clues about physics itself.  Measuring the CMB requires special-purpose telescopes with cameras that operate at 0.1 degrees above absolute zero from remote sites.   I will describe our current understanding of cosmology and the CMB, and give an insider’s view of the joys of working on CMB instruments in the lab and at a desert site in Northern Chile at 17,000 ft elevation.

Host:  Eric Gawiser