Let There Be Light

In free talk at UC Riverside on Feb. 12, observational astronomer Bahram Mobasher will take the public on an intellectual journey to the depth of space and beginning of time

By Iqbal Pittalwala on February 5, 2015

RIVERSIDE, Calif.  – How did the universe start? What is its future? What is its content?  Is the universe open or closed?  Something else?  And what exactly are dark matter and dark energy, and just how do they fit in?

Bahram Mobasher, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside will address these questions in a free public talk he will give on campus at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 12.

Titled “Let There Be Light: The History of the Universe from the First Billion Years to the Present,” the talk will take place in Rooms 205-206, Winston Chung Hall.  Parking information can be found here.  Parking Lots 10 and 13 are recommended.

A telescope observation will follow the talk.

Mobasher’s approximately hour-long talk will cover 13.8 billion years – the age of the universe.  He will discuss the universe’s beginning, its evolution, the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, as well as the history of life and how humans came to be.

“Recent advances in astronomy have made it possible to find answers to the most fundamental questions that mankind has pondered over the last many centuries,” Mobasher said. “In this talk I will introduce the public to the latest discoveries in modern astronomy, which have fundamentally changed our view of the heavens.”

At UC Riverside, Mobasher researches the formation and evolution of galaxies using galaxy surveys obtained with ground-based telescopes and space facilities.  Using observational data and stellar synthesis models, he studies the properties of galaxies as a function of star formation rate, morphology, environment, color, luminosity and redshift.

His talk is the fourth in a series of astronomy talks being held at UCR.  It had originally been scheduled for Feb. 5.

Archived under: Inside UCR, Science/Technology, astronomy, Bahram Mobasher, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy, galaxy formation, planets, press release, public talk, stars, universe

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