What is missing from our understanding of the cosmos? with Wendy L. Freedman

Wendy Laurel Freedman is a Canadian-American astronomer, best known for her measurement of the Hubble constant, and as director of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and Las Campanas, Chile. She is now the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Her principal research interests are in observational cosmology, focusing on measuring both the current and past expansion rates of the universe, and on characterizing the nature of dark energy. Freedman has been elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023.
She has received several awards for her contributions to observational cosmology, including a Centennial Lectureship of the American Physical Society (1999), the John P. McGovern Award in Science (2000), the Magellanic Premium Award of the American Philosophical Society (2002) and the Marc Aaronson Lectureship and prize (1994) "in recognition of a decade of fundamental contributions to the areas of the extra galactic distance scale and the stellar populations of galaxies". In 2009 Freedman was one of three co-recipients of the Gruber Cosmology Prize. She received the 2016 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, awarded jointly by the American Institute of Physics and the American Astronomical Society, "for her outstanding contributions and leadership role in using optical and infrared space- and ground-based observations of Cepheid stars, together with innovative analysis techniques, to greatly improve the accuracy of the cosmic distance scale and thereby constrain fundamental cosmological parameters.". She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.
Asteroid 107638 Wendyfreedman, discovered by David Healy at the Junk Bond Observatory in 2001, was named in her honor.
Earthlings: buckle up for a journey through the Cosmos! Prof. Wendy Freedman, an award-winning scientist studying the frontiers of cosmology will guide you in this episode of Science and Cocktails through our galaxy, the outer space, and its many mysterious objects such as dark energy, dark matter, and black holes. An episode that will take you to the edge of our current understanding of the universe. All this just after SPEkTR! mixes rock, surf and electronics and Ms. Jekel spins the turntables.

How do we measure the expansion the universe? What is the size and age of the universe? What is the current discrepancy in our understanding of the expansion of the universe? What do we know about the inventory of our Universe? What is dark matter?
How did black holes become real?
In 1929, Carnegie astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding, and revolutionized our perspective on the universe. Decades of discovery followed. The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1990 enabled astronomers to make measurements of the universe of unprecedented accuracy. The December 25, 2021 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is now promising even higher accuracy. Professor Freedman will describe how astronomers measure how fast the universe is expanding, a quantity known as the Hubble constant, which gives a measure of the size and the age of the universe.

Event held in English with the generous support of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. For this event we also acknowledge the support of The Niels Bohr International Academy.

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[malectric]

One thing that intrigues me is the idea that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing. We can only observe what it was from the most distant reaches what it was at the time that light was emitted. Looking "locally" we can measure what it is now and it seems that it is being measured as being greater than what it was at the time those distant objects emitted their light. I've also heard it being said that the expansion rate increased a few billion years ago. So why does the light cone from the time of the big bang to now appear to be linear rather than showing a discontinuity part-way along? Or could it be that the discontinuity mentioned in the observations is not "fixed but will have shifted further away in a billion years (e.g.) time? Could it be that the expansion rate is increasing as objects generally become more distant from neighbouring ones and the gravitational forces between them is lessening with time as they move further away from each other?

[Eye_Exist]

1) what is the existence and why and how does it exist?
2) what is the reality (everything that exists), why does it exist, how far beyond the universe does it extend to and how is it related to the universe?
3) what is the universe, where is it, why does it exist and what keeps it living?
4) what is the consciousness, what is life, and how they came to be?
note that every single thing we think we know about the cosmos exists inside these unanswered fundamental mysteries; a context which we do not even know - so really it's appropriate to say we only know trivial things about anything.

[garyrogers]

Does Einstein's theory of time dilation have anything to do with these differences in calculations of Hubble's constant?

[tybeedave]

what's missing? our understanding of gravity.
newton introduced an anthropocentric view of gravity. sooner or later, ppl will realize that gravity is a property of space, not mass. then our observations and understanding of all things natural will align with reality.
gravity doesn't suck mass, it blows mass....

[pedrosura]

I understand that these telescopes are measuring distances and that the farther the object the larger the redshifts. But after a billion light years its all extrapolation. And this is where redshift grows. To attribute recessional velocity to redshift without independent verification maybe causing all these problems. Some scientists have pointed this out. A hint is that independent tests are giving different results and they all depend on that assumption

[dadsonworldwide]

Where can i find this evolutionary theory of cosmology?
I hear it all the time in recent decades am i supposed to invoke a human centric fill in the blanks connect the dots when its thrown out by lecturers?

[astroblue]

And if we have representative's there now? no one has told the people of the earth so they don't represent us really! they just think they do!

[JohnHSully]

First of all I think Wendy did a wonderful job. Second, why would you even make such a comment. All you had do do was watch.

[CPHSDC]

She's amazing. One uncertainty. Different celestial luminosities aren't distances from each other alone. They are also in different times. Suppose the whole thing revolves, and pieces, clusters form rotating systems, like all physical systems not altered by life, then there is a periodicity to our observations. We are looking at a merry go round through a kalaidescope. The whole thing is on repeat, even as it evolves. Do the math. Back to the chalkboard. See what you are looking at. It's not distance. It's time. The distance is on a turntable. Your welcome. I'll go take a nap. (You know what preceded the Big Bang? The Big Bong.)

[jonathanedwardgibson]

How about testable hypothesis? Rear-view mirror rationales for why the current models almost-kinda explain while leading to no great progress for half-century: look at the wreck CERN leaves behind. You got nothing to actually test! Why can’t Einstein or Newton predict how black holes’ align to the same orientation across vast distances? Or, explain the Z-pinch of nebulae and how they orient perpendicular to galactic plane?

[jackinthecube]

As a lay person, this is hard to follow without a more interesting speaker

[charlesweinberg]

I say as they move away; “Was it SOMETHING wE SaiD”!
I can’t move away from the night or the day.
It’s probably is the placebo’s effect,
What the heck…
Kiss88

[astroblue]

The fact that beings far ahead of humans are right now here in our solar system and we want to ask them if it is Okay to share the moon with us so we can use it for a base of operations And we would like to be at the meetings of the federation, just to watch and learn?

[erbalumkan]

What is missing is the notion of plasma being the state of matter that is prevalent, that electricity plays a mayor role but most of all: an open mind to alternative theories.

[Biskawow]

I am supper annoyed with explanation of hubble constant. If galaxy 10bil years ago is moving away faster than galaxy 1 bil years ago, expansion is slowing down ffs. (In Mugatu voice) AM I THE ONLY ONE SEEING THIS? I FEEL LIKE IM TAKING CRAZY PILLS!

[dirtbird]

Bet there is alot missing, also would wager most all of it will still be missing when I am dead and gone, so although interesting , it is quite pointless.

[tonymarshharveytron]

Hello Wendy, If you would be prepared to take a chance and reply to this comment, I can explain logically, both 'Dark Matter', 'Dark Energy', 'Gravity' and much more.
I am not a nutcase, I am a 73 year old successful Inventor with Patents granted. My hypothesis is being assessed at the ' Royal Society ' at present.
I would be happy to send you a copy of my latest draft by email if you are interested, Kind regards,

Tony Marsh.

[tabularaza]

God, Jesus and the holy can not get any further.