In this talk, Richard Ellis, professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, explores how modern telescopes have made possible to trace galaxies back to the dawn of the universe, when it was only a few hundred million years old, and highlights the challenges astronomers face in observing those “first lights.” He explains the transition of matter in the early universe from a neutral to an ionized state, highlights the Hubble’s advances in infrared observation, and examines the expectations surrounding the next generation of giant ground-based telescopes. With a historical and forward-looking perspective, the lecture opens new windows on our cosmic origins and the future of high-sensitivity astronomy.
This lecture, delivered in October 2013, is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’. This lecture series tackles t
In this talk, Richard Ellis, professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, explores how modern telescopes have made possible to trace galaxies back to the dawn of the universe, when it was only a few hundred million years old, and highlights the challenges astronomers face in observing those “first lights.” He explains the transition of matter in the early universe from a neutral to an ionized state, highlights the Hubble’s advances in infrared observation, and examines the expectations surrounding the next generation of giant ground-based telescopes. With a historical and forward-looking perspective, the lecture opens new windows on our cosmic origins and the future of high-sensitivity astronomy.
This lecture, delivered in October 2013, is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’. This lecture series tackles the fundamental questions in contemporary astrophysics.The discovery of the earliest galaxies, the search for signs of life in the universe, the long-term stability of planetary systems and the study of starquakes are some of the issues examined in the third edition.
