The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences will present a lecture by the president of the American Astronomical Society at 7:30 p.m. April 19 in the Jerzewiak Family Auditorium in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building.
The lecture, “The Accelerating Universe: Einstein’s Blunder Undone,” will be given by Robert P. Kirshner, Ph.D., the Clowes Professor of Science and the Harvard College Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University.
Kirshner, author of The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos, will tell how Albert Einstein in 1917 introduced a “cosmological constant” into his original equations for general relativity, with the intent to make a static universe. However, after the discovery in 1929 that the universe is expanding, this term appeared to be a big mistake — often referred to as “Einstein’s blunder.”
Modern measurements using exploding stars halfway across the universe show that cosmic expansion is accelerating due to the effects of a mysterious dark energy throughout the universe. While the nature of this energy is not well understood, it has properties similar to those of the cosmological constant.
The newly discovered dark energy comprises two-thirds of the universe’s energy density. Observation programs on the ground and from NASA’s Hubble Space Technology are under way to learn more about the nature of dark energy, one of biggest mysteries in physical science.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Lou Lucas at 935-5332.