IN PERSON: Classical astronomers imagined a static sky that changed only over millions of years. How wrong they were! The cosmos bursts with exploding stars, colliding black holes and neutron stars spinning thousands of times each second. Everywhere we look, we see a universe evolving on every timescale, down to nanoseconds. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is built to capture this transient cosmos. Located in Chile on Cerro Pachón, the first images from its telescope were transmitted to Earth in June of this year. With its giant 8.4-meter mirror and revolutionary wide-field camera, it will scan the sky nightly, catching millions of fleeting events. This course explores Rubin’s history, design and ambitious goals — mixing big science with human stories to show how this “cosmic time-lapse” will transform astronomy, and maybe even ourselves. | Lecture + Q&A.
Max enrollment: 200.
Class sessions are recorded.
Location: Erwin Mill, 2024 W. Main St, Durham NC 27705
