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“Astronaut Will” makes it to the Universe’s outer edge?
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:51:00 GMT
Thursday 21st March was the date, Park Building lecture theatre was the setting. The small topic at hand? Simply, ‘Mapping the Universe’ as we currently see it. A challenge that Professor Will Percival rose to with ease and brilliance. Delivering his inaugural lecture Professor Percival took us on a rollercoaster ride stretching from the easily understandable position of the University’s Park Building on a familiar Google map all the way to the Sloan Galaxies some 12 billion light years from earth. He demonstrated the speed with which astronomy is moving today showing two maps of the visible Universe one from Wednesday and one on the day of the lecture, the second being very different and more detailed than the first, despite the passage of only 24 hours.
Setting the scene, Professor Percival, of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, explained the expansion of the Universe model. Indicating that the further galaxies were from us the faster they were accelerating. With skill he imbued the audience with an understanding of the theories of Edwin Hubble and Christian Doppler, allowing them to understand the core principles that enable modern day astronomers to determine the distance and speed of far away stars and galaxies. He engaged the audience in the structure of the wider Universe highlighting the clustering of galaxies along lines caused by other unexplained velocities not included in the Hubble model, mentioning that astronomers refer to these as ‘the fingers of God’.
Professor Percival then took us on a tour of his research career, highlighting his time at Oxford and his most recent project, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. He showed us photos of the telescope in New Mexico and that of the research teams working there, joking as he went that the “equipment had been upgraded” from large tube monitors to flat screens “but the researchers had not”.
The final question: Will has been a researcher for 16 years; could Astronaut Will make it to the outer edges of the Universe given another 16 years, in his lifetime?
Will asked the audience “do you think I can do this?” The answer, a tacit “No”. To the disbelief of the audience Will showed the audience that thanks to general relativity, using a Saturn 5 rocket (from the NASA moon missions) that he could. Accelerating at a modest 1.4 times the acceleration experienced due to gravity on earth (or 1.4g) will would make it to the galaxies that he has studied through the Sloan telescope. However 9.9 billion years would have passed on earth and he would need an inexhaustible supply of fuel, food and water. He then showed the audience a stunning and accurate video of what he would see from his Saturn 5 rocket window as the journey progressed.
Professor Percival ended on a touching note that although he would love to go, his family would be the reason that would keep him here on earth.
Watch the lecture now: