On Aug. 3, 2023, Liberty Science Center hosted Dr. Jo Dunkley, Professor of Physics and Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, for our latest Space Talk presentation at LSC After Dark: “Seeing the Invisible Universe.”

The contents of the universe go far beyond just what we can see with our eyes. The invisible, but vital, forces of dark matter and dark energy have shaped our universe over its almost 14 billion year history. Dr. Jo Dunkley investigates the origin and evolution of our universe by studying these invisible pieces.

So how do we study something that is invisible? Dark matter doesn’t emit any light at all, but it still exerts a gravitational force on the universe, and on light itself. When light travels through the universe, it encounters this invisible dark matter on its way to reach us. The gravitational influence from dark matter bends and warps the path this light takes before it reaches us, an effect called gravitational lensing. By studying very closely where and by how much this light is bent, we can infer where this dark matter is and how much of it there is.

In the largest planetarium in the country, Dr. Dunkley took viewers from New Jersey, to the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in northern Chile, and all the way out to the edge of the universe to explore the nature of dark matter in our universe.

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Join us next month, on Sept. 7, as we welcome Dr. Kathryn Johnston from Columbia University for our next Space Talk: “A New View of the Milky Way.”

Click here to learn more and reserve your spot now.

dark matter,  Dr. Jo Dunkley,  Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium,  LSC After Dark,  Princeton University,  space,  Space Talk