Astronomy on Tap: Exploring the dark universe (Leiden, in English)
The next Astronomy on Tap Leiden will take place on Monday 25 September at Grandcafé de Burcht at 20.00 CEST. Guadalupe Cañas Herrera (ESA) and Henk Hoekstra (Leiden University) will tell about the recently launched Euclid mission and its objectives to understand the nature of dark energy and dark matter. As always, there will be fun games where you could win cool science prizes.
Guadalupe Cañas Herrera: "Euclid: a travel into the unknown"
Our universe is composed mostly by two unknown substances: dark matter and dark energy. The ordinary matter, that is, the matter we are all composed of (and planets, stars, and galaxies) represents only 5% of our universe. If this is not puzzling enough, scientists believe that dark matter is responsible for keeping the stars in galaxies together, and dark energy fuels the accelerated expansion of our universe. The European Space Agency mission Euclid, which was launched last July, aims to reveal the nature of these mysterious ingredients. In this talk, Guadalupe will explain what we currently know (or the little we know) about the universe and how Euclid will be a key agent in resolving the mystery.
Guadalupe is a research fellow in space science at the European Space Agency (ESA). Previously, she obtained her PhD and Master in cosmology at Leiden University, and her Bachelor's in physics at University of Cantabria, in Spain. Guadalupe develops most of her research in the Euclid consortium, where she is part of the Theory and weak lensing science working groups.
Henk Hoekstra: "How did the universe turn from an ale into a stout?"
The early universe was remarkably bland, but under the influence of gravity it changed into the complex world we live in today. Euclid will allow us to follow this transformation over almost half the lifetime of the universe by revealing how the distribution of matter in the universe evolved. These results will help shed light on fundamental questions, such as the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and help settle the excitement about IPA.
Henk Hoekstra is a professor of Observational cosmology at Leiden Observatory and a member of the Euclid science coordination group. He is a pioneer in the field of weak gravitational lensing, which one of the primary probes of Euclid. He is looking forward to work on the Euclid data together with his team that is funded through an Advanced Grant awarded by the European Research Council.
Logistical information
Astronomy on Tap Leiden starts at 20.00 sharp, so please arrive earlier to enter the bar, save a seat, and grab a drink. The organisation is not planning to stream the event live, but will be uploading a recording of the talks on their YouTube channel after the event.
Location: Burgsteeg 14, 2312 JS Leiden