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2017-02-8
      19:30

Speaker's Night: Observing the Cosmic Microwave Background with the South Pole Telescope

Speaker: Dr. Tyler Natoli, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is remnant light from the Big Bang that has been traveling through space for over 13 billion years. This CMB light gives us a detailed picture of the Universe in its infancy and a wealth of cosmological information. The effective temperature of the CMB light is only 2.75 Kelvin and requires special telescopes and detectors to observe. Dr. Natoli works on developing detectors to observe the CMB for the South Pole Telescope, a 10-meter microwave-wavelength telescope located at the geographic South Pole. In this talk he will discuss the physical process and aftermath of the Big Bang, including how the CMB was formed. He will also discuss some of the technology used in the South Pole Telescope that allows it to observe light from the CMB.  

Tyler Natoli graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a physics undergraduate degree before earning his doctorate in Physics form the University of Chicago in 2015. Tyler is now a Dunlap Fellow at the Dunlap Institute within the University of Toronto, he has been analyzing data and building parts for the South Pole Telescope since 2009.

Who can attend: Everyone including non-members
Fee: Free
Reservation not needed 
Location: Ontario Science Centre (follow the signs to the RASC meeting)

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