How to Build a Milky Way January 26, 2012

An over-arching goal of contemporary astronomical research is to answer the question: how did galaxies like our own Milky Way form? A basic picture has emerged in which dark matter, gravity, gas and black holes all play key roles. But what is dark matter? How does the gas in a primordial galaxy turn into stars? And why do black holes seem to know the size of the galaxy that will grow around them? In this talk, Dr Mark Wilkinson will present some of our latest findings which make use of the world's largest telescopes and the most powerful supercomputers to address fundamental questions about the origin of the Milky Way.

Talk suitable for all ages.

Official Website: http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2012/january/stars-in-our-eyes-four-astronomy-lectures-in-one-week