SPA Meeting – Making Dark Matter Maps with Euclid

The Society for Popular Astronomy are holding a meeting on 28th January 2023 at 2pm. BAA members are welcome at SPA meetings under a reciprocal arrangement. Please refer to the SPA website for full details including directions to the venue.

Prof Tom Kitching (UCL-MSSL), Making Dark Matter Maps with Euclid

The Euclid mission aims at understanding why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating and what is the nature of the source responsible for this acceleration which physicists refer to as dark energy. Dark energy represents around 75% of the energy content of the Universe today, and together with dark matter it dominates the Universe’s matter–energy content. Both are mysterious and of unknown nature but control the past, present and future evolution of Universe.

Euclid will explore how the Universe evolved over the past 10 billion years to address questions related to fundamental physics and cosmology on the nature and properties of dark energy, dark matter and gravity. Euclid will also provide insightful information on the physics of the early universe and on the initial conditions which seed the formation of cosmic structure. Tom Kitching is a UK Science Lead for the project.

After a break, Robin Scagell will highlight the events coming up in the sky for the next three months, and then expert observer Dave Eagle will speak on a topic yet to be decided.

Featured image: Three views of the Euclid satellite. Credit: ESA

Venue

Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College London, Gower St, London WC1