May 27 2024 to May 27 2024 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing the cosmological expansion to accelerate. Bharat Ratra will describe the astronomical data that persuade cosmologists that (as yet undetected) dark energy and dark matter are by far the main components of the energy budget of the universe at present. He will review how these observations have led to the development of a quantitative “standard” model of cosmology that describes the evolution of the universe from an early epoch of inflation to the complex hierarchy of structure seen today. In this non-technical talk, he will also discuss the basic physics, and the history of ideas, on which this model is based.

Speakers

Bharat Ratra Distinguished Professor of Physics

Bharat Ratra, a distinguished professor of physics, works in the areas of cosmology and astroparticle physics. He researches the structure and evolution of the universe. Two of his current principal interests are developing models for large-scale matter and radiation distributions in the universe and testing these models by comparing predictions to observational data. In 1988, Ratra and Jim Peebles proposed the first dynamical dark energy model. Dark energy is the leading candidate for the mechanism that is responsible for causing cosmological expansion to accelerate. The discovery that cosmological expansion is accelerating is one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the last quarter of a century. Ratra is a founding member of the North Central Kansas Astronomical Society and of the Kansas State University Center for the Understanding of Origins. He also is actively involved in various other science outreach efforts, including the National Science Foundation QuarkNet program for Kansas (and some Arkansas and Missouri) high school science teachers, as well as outreach efforts with various Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 elementary, middle and high school science teachers and schools.