The First Sources of Light in the Universe

Primordial stars, the first stars in the early universe, are unique objects that could have strongly influenced their environment despite their brief existence. These objects can be identified through their characteristic ionizing properties and the elements created by their supernovae. By combining these two signatures with a variety of current astronomical data, researchers can obtain relatively strong constraints on the masses and formation epochs of the first stars. Dr. Venkatesan will discuss why we have not detected these fascinating objects to date and will discuss the most promising observational programs for detecting these primordial stellar clusters at cosmic ages of less than a billion years.

Speaker: Dr. Aparna Venkatesan, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of San Francisco