On the 3rd Thursday every month, learn about the latest in our Universe at Astronomy on Tap, Champaign-Urbana.
Join us live on Youtube on Thurs. Oct. 15, 6 PM CT for this month’s Astronomy on Tap CU!
Listen closely to hear “Whispers of the Dark Universe,” a talk by University of Illinois physics Prof. Helvi Witek. When black holes or neutron stars–extremely compact objects born out of massive stars–collide, they produce “ripples in spacetime” called gravitational waves. In this talk Prof. Witek will discuss gravitational waves, the “sound” of the dark universe, where they come from and how we use them to explore long-standing mysteries of our universe.
Prof. Witek joined the Department of Physics at UIUC in January 2020 as assistant professor, after obtaining her PhD at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), postdoc positions at the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham (UK), a Marie-Curie Fellowship at the University of Barcelona (Spain) and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in London (UK).
Grab a drink, bring your friends and family, and let’s have some fun while we learn! We hope to see you there!
Background artwork by Sandbox Studio, Chicago with Corinne Mucha.
These events are hosted by the University of Illinois Department of Astronomy. For more information, email astro.on.tap.cu@gmail.com or contact us via Facebook or Twitter. Sign up for our mailing list for all event updates.
Image description of feature photo: Text on an artist’s conception of celestial objects merging and emitting gravitational waves. In the middle in white text reads “Whispers of the Dark Universe”, below in blue reads “Prof. Helvi Witek”. In the upper left corner reads “Astro on Tap CU, YouTube Livestream, Thursday Oct 15, 6 – 7pm c” and in the upper right corner the AoT CU social media links are listed (@AoTChampaignUrbana, @AstroOnTapCU, @illini_astro).