Free Public Talk - Gravity: From Falling Apples to Ripples in Spacetime April 5, 2012

The force of gravity keeps us from flying off into space and keeps planets in orbit around the sun. In a free public talk, Ilana MacDonald explores this powerful force, from our earliest theories about how it works to current research on gravitational waves—the ripples in space-time—caused by black holes.

The talk is at 9:10pm, Thursday, April 5th in the McLennan Physical Labs building, 60 St. George St. on the St. George Campus of the University of Toronto. After the talk, the public are invited to attend a free planetarium show. Also, telescopes will be set up to view the night sky, weather permitting.

Ilana MacDonald is a PhD candidate in the fourth year of her doctoral studies in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. With her supervisor Prof. Harald Pfeiffer of CITA, she studies the gravitational waves given off by binary black holes. She is also very involved in astronomy public outreach at UofT, helping organize public lectures and giving planetarium shows to the public.

For more information about the talk and to sign up for a planetarium show: http://www1.astro.utoronto.ca/~gasa/public_talk/iWeb/index.php