Astronomy & Astrophysics

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. The 11 international partners of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, which includes the University of Chicago, announces the commitment of more than $500 million to begin construction of the first of a new generation of extremely large telescopes. This animated video shows the operation of the Giant Magellan Telescope. Announcing the project’s construction phase and commenting on its capabilities are Wendy Freedman, chair of the GMTO Board of Directors; Matthew Colless, vice chair of the GMTO Board; and Edward Moses, GMTO president. (Credit: Giant Magellan Telescope—GMTO Corporation)

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Pioneering University of Chicago cosmologist Michael S. Turner focuses his remarks on “the Chicago School of Cosmology,” from Edwin Hubble and George Ellery Hale to the present. Hubble, SB 1910, PhD 1917, discovered that the universe consists of billions of galaxies and that it has been expanding since it began in a big bang. Hale was the first chairman of the University’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He also founded Yerkes Observatory, which under his leadership developed the big reflecting telescopes that are the workhorses of optical astronomy today, making discoveries from the expanding universe to planets orbiting other stars.Turning to more recent times, Turner discusses efforts that started in the 1980s at UChicago to establish the new field of particle astrophysics and cosmology. At that time, the Chicago School, consisting primarily of the late David Schramm, Edward "Rocky" Kolb, the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Turner, was alone in pushing this idea. “Today this idea that there are deep connections between the very big and the very small is universally accepted, has propelled the field to its current prominence, and underpins our understanding of the universe,” Turner said. “As we say at Chicago, ideas matter!”The Ryerson Lecture grew out of a 1972 bequest to the University by Nora and Edward L. Ryerson, a former chairman of the board of trustees. The lecture honors excellence in academic pursuits. A faculty committee selects the Ryerson Lecturer based on research contributions of lasting significance.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Pioneering University of Chicago cosmologist Michael S. Turner focuses his remarks on “the Chicago School of Cosmology,” from Edwin Hubble and George Ellery Hale to the present. Hubble, SB 1910, PhD 1917, discovered that the universe consists of billions of galaxies and that it has been expanding since it began in a big bang. Hale was the first chairman of the University’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He also founded Yerkes Observatory, which under his leadership developed the big reflecting telescopes that are the workhorses of optical astronomy today, making discoveries from the expanding universe to planets orbiting other stars.Turning to more recent times, Turner discusses efforts that started in the 1980s at UChicago to establish the new field of particle astrophysics and cosmology. At that time, the Chicago School, consisting primarily of the late David Schramm, Edward "Rocky" Kolb, the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Turner, was alone in pushing this idea. “Today this idea that there are deep connections between the very big and the very small is universally accepted, has propelled the field to its current prominence, and underpins our understanding of the universe,” Turner said. “As we say at Chicago, ideas matter!”The Ryerson Lecture grew out of a 1972 bequest to the University by Nora and Edward L. Ryerson, a former chairman of the board of trustees. The lecture honors excellence in academic pursuits. A faculty committee selects the Ryerson Lecturer based on research contributions of lasting significance.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. UChicago Assistant Professor Daniel Fabrycky explains how his work with the Kepler space telescope is helping to find far-off planets like our own.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. UChicago Assistant Professor Daniel Fabrycky explains how his work with the Kepler space telescope is helping to find far-off planets like our own.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Scholars and researches discuss the interplay between society and science at the Adler Planetarium's high-tech Grainger Sky Theater. The discussion focused on the mysteries of the cosmos and how they have affected our art, entertainment, and education, and the disconnect between society and true scientific knowledge.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Scholars and researches discuss the interplay between society and science at the Adler Planetarium's high-tech Grainger Sky Theater. The discussion focused on the mysteries of the cosmos and how they have affected our art, entertainment, and education, and the disconnect between society and true scientific knowledge.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. University of Chicago physicist Juan Collar discusses the search for dark matter (1:30).

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. University of Chicago astrophysicist Angela Olinto discusses high energy cosmic rays and a new observatory determined to find their origins. Copyright 2005 The University of Chicago.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. What is dark matter? Is the universe speeding up? University of Chicago Professor Michael Turner clarifies how theoretical and experimental cosmologists challenge each other to unravel the deep mysteries of the universe. Copyright 2003 The University of Chicago.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. As one of four lectures from the Alumni Club's Day of Science, cosmologist Rocky Kolb talks about the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that make up 95 percent of the universe in The Dark Side of the Universe.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. The University of Chicago's Evalyn Gates calls the instrument Einstein's telescope. The instrument is actually the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, which acts as a sort of natural telescope. Gates' recently published book, Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe, explains how it works.Although based on Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, the effect is easily demonstrated. Look at a light through the bottom of a wine glass, Gates recommends, and see the resulting light distortion.Einstein's telescope is using the universe itself as a lens through which we can seek out galaxies that would otherwise be too faint to be seen, says Gates, Assistant Director of the University's Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. What is dark matter? Is the universe speeding up? University of Chicago Professor Michael Turner clarifies how theoretical and experimental cosmologists challenge each other to unravel the deep mysteries of the universe. Copyright 2003 The University of Chicago.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. University of Chicago astrophysicist Angela Olinto discusses high energy cosmic rays and a new observatory determined to find their origins. Copyright 2005 The University of Chicago.