PHYSICS IN ASPEN - “THE DYNAMIC AND EVOLVING UNIVERSE”

Hubble - infant galaxy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week I attended the first Summer 2012 Free physics dialogue hosted by the Aspen Center for Physics , “The Dynamic and Evolving Universe”. This presentation was given by Dr. GilHolder, Associate Professor of Physics at McGill University . 

As is usual for me in regard to these kinds of presentations, I have come away with more questions than answers – but I guess that’s the nature of scientific inquiry. 

We were presented with a lot of details, but were given three main takeaways:

1. The universe is expanding at an increasing rate. 
   
2. This is occurring despite the fact that the force of gravity is relentless – It is a relatively weak force, but never stops. 
3. Star formation is a relatively recent phenomenon (on the Cosmological time scale), and the rate of formation has slowed down.

In the discussion, Dr. Holder walked us through the currently most-accepted view that the universe started off as a hot singularity, expanded rapidly at the Big Bang, and has continued to expand ever since.

He informed us that shortly after the Big Bang, the universe was quite smooth, but got more “lumpy” as gravity slowly took over – forming atom parts, then atoms themselves, and then progressively larger structures, including stars and galaxies.