[AstroNet] Whats up at the Observatory next Saturday

[Thembela Mantungwa]

Hi there,

Next Saturday, July 9 at 20h00, S.A. Astronomical Observatory will have a public lecture where Michelle Knights will talk about "The cosmic time machine". After the talk, there will be tours of the library, the McClean Museum and Telescope. If the weather is good, there will be stargazing.

Abstract of the talk:

How did the universe begin? Does it even have a beginning? How is it evolving? How did galaxies and clusters form? What is this mysterious dark matter, and what about the even stranger dark energy?. Cosmology is the science that tries to answer these questions, and many others. When cosmologist look deep into space at the furthest objects visible with telescopes, they look billions of years back in time. During her talk, Michelle will give an overview of how cosmologists study the universe, what they think they know and what kind of questions to this day, remain unanswered.

Michelle is an MSc student at UCT in the Cosmology department. Her curiosity about stars began when she was young, despite being born in Johannesburg. During her undergraduate studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, she became chairman of the Astronomy Society (Astrosoc). She was instrumental in the growing number of membership. One of the greatest achievements of the Astrosoc during her time was the restoration of the ancient 10 inch Newtonian reflecting telescope.

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Regards

Thembela Mantungwa
S.A. Astronomical Observatory
Tel: 021 460 9319
Fax: 086 612 7502
Mob: 071 105 0109
Email: tm at saao.ac.za
Website: www.saao.ac.za / www.salt.ac.za