Johnson County Science Cafe

Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Universe

Speakers: Bharat Ratra, cosmologist in the KSU physics department
              
Date: April 9, 2013

Time: 6:30 pm

Location: Coaches Bar and Grill, 9089 W. 135th Street, one block west of 135th and Antioch, south side of 135th St.

Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing the accelerating expansion of the universe. (The observational discovery of the accelerating
cosmological expansion was recently honored by the award of a Nobel Prize.) I will describe the data which persuade cosmologists that (as yet undetected) dark energy and dark matter are by far the main components of the energy budget of the universe at the present time.

Dr. Ratra’s area of research is Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. He develops models for the large-scale matter and radiation distributions in the universe, testing these models by comparing their predictions to observational data, including the uneven distribution of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and the mass correlation function. 

For more information: biologycctrack@hotmail.com