A public talk by Prof. Cynthia Chiang (McGill Space Institute).
Title: Searching for Cosmic Dawn
Abstract: The first stars in the universe were born a few hundred million years after the big bang. These stars were unlike any that exist today, and astronomers are working to build specialized telescopes that are capable of looking back to the earliest moments in our universe's history and giving us our first glimpse of "cosmic dawn." In order to observe the first stars, we tune our telescopes to measure radio waves at frequencies around 100 MHz. Because FM radio stations also broadcast at these frequencies, it is impossible to observe from most places on earth: our telescopes are essentially blinded. The search for cosmic dawn requires traveling to some of the most remote corners of the earth in order to access the quietest observing conditions. I will tell the story of one experiment, named PRIZM, that led our team to Marion Island: a small island halfway between South Africa and Antarctica that is home to penguins, albatrosses, seals, and now two small radio telescopes.
Free and open to everyone - no knowledge of Astronomy expected.