14.06.2014
The Excellence Cluster on air: “Dark Energy”
How to measure distances in the universe? This question was tackled from 26 May to 20 June 2014 in the first program of the newly opened Munich Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, the Visiting Research Center of the Excellence Cluster Universe. Among the more than 50 international participants were the two renowned astrophysicists and Nobel laureates Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess.
On the occasion of his stay in Munich, science author Florian Hildebrandt interviewed Brian P. Schmidt on the mysterious dark energy, the energy that drives apart our cosmos. In the 1990s, the native US-american astronomer had studied if cosmic distances can be measured using stellar explosions, the supernovae. In the course of the studies, he and colleagues discovered that the observed supernovae are moving apart faster and faster. In 2011, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Scientists suspect the dark energy as the driving force behind the accelerated expansion of the universe, the nature of which, however, is still unknown.
The interview with Brian P. Schmidt was broadcasted in “IQ – Wissenschaft und Forschung” on Bayern 2 Radio on 13 June an can be reheard on
- Composite Dark Energy Camera image of one of the sky regions that the collaboration will use to study supernovae, exploding stars that will help uncover the nature of dark energy. (Credit: Fermilab)
