Speaker
Description
Over 25 years ago, two teams of astronomers discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. This discovery was based on careful measurements of exploding stars, or supernovae, and the unexpected result earned the Nobel Prize for physics in 2011. However, the cause of the accelerating expansion remains a mystery. One explanation is that the universe is being pushed apart by some mysterious "dark energy", acting against the pull of gravity. In this talk, I will describe the work that led to the original discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe and the technological advances that made it possible. I will then describe the latest advances in observations of supernovae and some recent, tantalising results on the nature of dark energy. Finally, I will discuss the exciting prospects and challenges for the future as several new telescopes come into operation, including the ESA Euclid mission that is currently collecting data, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory that will soon begin observations, and the future European Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the biggest optical telescope in the World.
