Benjamin Dean Lecture: How It All Began

Learn about how an iota of space-time 13.7 billion years ago grew into 100 billion galaxies, including everything we know and love. The big bang is the scientific story of creation and it's supported by a web of evidence pointing to an extremely hot and dense early state for the universe. What if we could look into space and see not only our place in the universe but also how we came to be here? As it happens, we can. Because it takes time for light to travel, we see more and more distant regions of the universe as they were in the successively greater past. Impey uses this concept-"look-back time"-to take us on an intergalactic tour that is simultaneously out in space and back in time. Performing a type of cosmic archaeology, Impey describes the astronomical clues that scientists have used to solve fascinating mysteries about the origins and development of our universe. How It All Began book signing to follow.

Speaker: Dr. Christopher Impey, Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona