Dr. Ludo Van Waerbeke

At 7:30 PM, 12 September, 2014, at the Sunshine Coast Art Centre, 5714 Medusa St., Sechelt, our speaker for the Sunshine Coast Chapter of the RASC will be Dr Ludo Van Waerbeke, an associate professor at UBC and a senior fellow of the Canadian Institute for advanced Research in the Cosmology and Gravity Program. Dr. Van Waerbeke will be speaking about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. The study of the universe is stumbling upon two mysteries: it is made of 5% of normal matter, 20% of an unknown type of matter, dark matter and for 75% of a puzzling form if energy, dark energy. Normal matter can be seen with traditional observational techniques that capture light at all possible wavelength with all kinds of telescopes. Dark matter can be detected indirectly with the gravitational lensing effect. The effect of dark energy can only be measured on the expansion rate of the Universe. Using a combination of observations of normal and dark matter and dark energy, Dr. Van Waerbeke’s research is a quest for a better understanding of the Universe and its fundamental laws, the large scale structures, galaxy clusters and galaxy formation.