Blaauw lezing 2024

Ieder jaar organiseert het Kapteyn Instituut de Blaauw lezing. Dit is een lezing voor een algemeen publiek die verzorgd wordt door een internationaal bekende astronoom. Het niveau is zodanig dat ook de geïnteresseerde leek het kan volgen. In 2024 wordt de Blaauw lezing verzorgd door prof. dr. Roberto Maiolino van het Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge.

Blaauw lezing 2024: dinsdag 12 november

De Blaauw lezing 2024 vindt plaats op dinsdag 12 november 2024.
Kaarten voor de lezing zijn gratis en verkrijgbaar via Studium Generale Groningen.

'The Quest for the First Stars and Black Holes Searching the skies with the James Webb Space Telescope'

Onderstaande tekst is een samenvatting van de lezing (in het Engels):

Finding and understanding the nature of the first stars at cosmic dawn is one of the most important and most ambitious goals for modern astrophysics. The first populations of stars produced the first chemical elements heavier than helium and formed the first, small protogalaxies, which then evolved, across the cosmic epoch, into the large and mature galaxies, such as the Milky Way and those in our local neighbour. Equally important and equally challenging is the search, in the early Universe, of the seeds of the first population of black holes, which later evolved in the supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies, with masses even exceeding a billion times the mass of the Sun. When matter accretes on such supermassive black holes it can become so luminous to vastly outshine the light emitted by all stars in their host galaxy.

Since its launch, about two years ago, the James Webb Space Telescope has been revolutionizing this area of research. Its sensitivity in detecting infrared light from the remotest parts of the Universe is orders of magnitude higher than any previous observatory, an historical leap in astronomy and, more broadly, in science. I will provide an overview of the early extraordinary discoveries from the Webb telescope, which have resulted in several unexpected findings. I will also discuss the new puzzles and areas of investigation that have been opened by Webb’s observations, how these might challenge theoretical models, and the prospects of further progress in the coming years.

Blaauw hoogleraar 2024: dr. Roberto Maiolino

Roberto Maiolino is hoogleraar experimentele astrofysica aan het Department of Physics (Cavendish Laboratory) en aan het Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, erehoogleraar aan University College London en Royal Society Research Professor.

Zijn belangrijkste onderzoeksgebied is het onderzoek naar de vorming en evolutie van sterrenstelsels en superzware zwarte gaten met behulp van verschillende waarnemingsfaciliteiten.