First light: Revealing the Early Universe - Chris Lintott
30,629
Published 2024-07-02
This oldest light in the Universe, emitted just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, contains the seeds of the structures we see around us, and tells us about conditions at the Universe's beginning.
It will also consider how measurements of the Universe's expansion, made using the CMB, are leading to unexpected results, creating tension in modern cosmology.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:48 Why we only see the cosmos in the past
06:58 Why JWST is an infrared telescope
10:16 Vesto Slipher's discovery that distant galaxies are redshifted
13:39 How Hubble's redshift work led to him discovering Hubble's law
18:21 How the Big Bang Theory developed
24:47 Project Echo
26:04 Telstar
26:44 Penzias and Wilson's discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR)
32:45 Why does the universe have CMBR?
35:56 How the discovery of CMBR proved the Big Bang Theory
41:00 Why we can't explain the current expansion rate of the universe (the Hubble tension)
44:05 How new observations in Chile may solve this problem
46:25 Conclusion
48:03 Q&A Session
This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 29th May 2024 at Conway Hall, London
Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.
He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/first-light
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All Comments (21)
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This talk isn't about the first stars, or the early universe, it's an introductory overview of modern astronomy.
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Keep watching the Sky at Night, the world's longest running tv science programme. Thanks, BBC.
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Thanks so much for these excellent lectures Dr Linott and Gresham College. What a wonderful time to be alive when this knowledge exists, and when it can be presented to a general audience both in person and electronically throughout the world (and beyond?). Looking forward to future talks.
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I'm beginning to get hooked on Astronomy again, after watching a few of Chris' talks. Thanks Gresham , nice work.
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Before the famous ''Sky At Night'' presenter Patrick Moore died, he groomed and introduced his successor Chris Lintott into his old role. A very worthy successor indeed!
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I love this guy. ❤ & all your physics lectures.
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just a marvelous presentation and presenter. Thank you
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Outstanding lecture.
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Thank you for an enjoyable and informative series of lectures on a fascinating subject.
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Excellent. Keep up the great work. More please.
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Always enjoy Chris' talks. Thanks to all the team involved for making this happen!
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11:15 Our favourite ex-planet always finds a way to come up in these talks.
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This was a fantastic talk, thank you.
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Thank you Chris
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Don't ever stop Chris 👍🤗
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At the risk of sounding simplistic, I would suggest that the question "what is the universe expanding into" is difficult to answer is because it is based on a false premise. A better question may be "what is there when the universe isn't?"
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since the refraction index of all transparent material is the difference in density between mediums. and the mass in the universe was less densly packed together at the start. then wouldn't the difference in density over time be reflected in the light from the early universe. if the speed of light is constant.
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if the space itself expanding it remains the question, what is space? what does it expanding to? where the extra space coming from? it appears that another layer of existance could be wrapped around our 3D world. or magic
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What a magnificent way of explanation! I loved it. Thanks. One thing that came into my mind is that, if the expansion rate of the universe as explained, then, will there be a time when the maximum distance of our observable universe is going to come to an end? I guess you got my point!
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Nice tv
