Northern Sydney Astronomical Society

The speaker for Tuesday night’s General Meeting is Glen Rees from Macquarie Uni, who will speak on “Brane World Cosmology”. His abstract follows:

Abstract: The ideas behind Brane World Cosmology are some of the most elegant and at the same time some of the most baffling subjects I have ever encountered. Despite a long and colorful history the idea of extra-dimensions, extra-universes and a whole host of accompanying theoretical models have always been limited in their authority, by a significant lack of testability. However recent advances in the fields of both astronomy and particle physics may soon allow us to put these ideas to the test and in doing so may change the way we view the universe forever. I hope to give a basic understanding of some of the largest problems facing astronomy today, before covering the unique way Brane World Cosmology deals with these issues. Last but certainly not least, we will take a short detour into some of the worlds upcoming next-generation telescopes and how they may finally allow us to put these amazing ideas firmly in the realm of testable science.

The meeting will be at Regis Hall, St Ignatius College, at 7:30 PM. Visitors are welcome, as usual.

The NSAS May General Meeting will be next Tuesday the 21st at 7:30PM at Regis Hall (lower), St Ignatius College, Riverview. The speaker is Dr Ivy Wong from CSIRO, who will speak on “The Space Shuttle Era”. Her abstract follows:

The space shuttle era concluded 2 years ago. This talk will describe the purpose and impact of its 31 years of operation. Although the impact of the shuttle era reaches well beyond the realms of space exploration and astronomy, I will only have time to present a glimpse of the technological impacts on our every-day life as well as provide an astronomer’s perspective on the significance of this era. Much of our understanding of the Universe would not have been possible without such a program.

Should be an interesting subject. As usual, visitors are welcome.