Alex Filippenko on Dark Energy on October 4, 2006

Astronomer Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on: “Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe” as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, in Los Altos Hills, California.

Free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs $2.

Call the series hot-line at 650-949-7888 for more information and driving directions.

In 1998, observations of very distant exploding stars provided intriguing evidence that the expansion of the entire Universe is speeding up with time, rather than slowing down due to gravity as expected.

Today, new and completely independent observations strongly support this amazing conclusion. Over the largest scales of space, our Universe seems to be dominated by a repulsive “dark energy” stretching the very fabric of space itself.

Dr. Filippenko, who is a leader in the group that has made some of these remarkable observations, will give us a progress report on our “runaway universe.” He is Professor of Astronomy at U.C. Berkeley, has written about 500 papers in astronomical publications, and has been voted the “Best Professor” on campus five times. He has been featured in three astronomy video courses published by The Teaching Company, and won the 2004 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.