Episode 161: The Boom Time of the Universe, with Rosemary Wyse

The Star Spot

Feature Guest: Rosemary Wyse

The universe is past its prime, by about 8 to 10 billion years. Sorry if you missed it. From the rate of star formation to the frequency of galactic mergers, the cosmos just isn’t what it used to be. Yet remarkably all is not lost, for there’s an astronomical archeology available to us. It turns out stars retain a memory of their ancient origins and galaxies hold clues to their own violent histories. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Professor Rosemary Wise for the second in our three part series. Our coverage of the Symposium Boom to Bust: The Story of the Universe, continues with a Boom.

The Astronomy and Space Exploration Society, a student group based at the University of Toronto, hosted its annual signature symposium event on Friday, February 15th, 2019. This year’s theme was “Boom to Bust,”with three keynote speakers covering, in turn, the birth, life and death of the cosmos. Once again The Star Spot was privileged to be on location to cover the event. And now in a special three episode series, we’re joined by each fascinating speaker as we take you from before the beginning into the unimaginably distant future of our universe. Current in Space

Dave reports on a new moon discovered around Neptune known as Hippocamp, and it may have a chaotic history. Then Simon tells us about the finding of the fastest-orbiting asteroid ever discovered! Finally Amelia and Tony revisit Supernova 1987A because this classic supernova event has another story to tell.

About Our Guest

Dr. Rosemary Wyse is the Alumni Centennial Professor at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Physics & Astronomy. Her research focus is in the field of galaxy formation and evolution, with emphases on resolved stellar populations and the nature of dark matter. She is the recipient of the Annie Jump Cannon Award and the Brouwer Award from the American Astronomical Society.