Richard S. Ellis - Let There Be Light: Finding the Earliest Galaxies

Following the initial glow that emerged from the hot Big Bang, the Universe entered a period astronomers call the `Dark Ages', when clouds of hydrogen assembled under gravity and eventually collapsed to ignite as the first stellar systems. Can powerful telescopes look back and witness such a remarkable event? Deep imaging with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, coupled with ambitious surveys undertaken with the Keck telescopes is providing our first exciting glimpse of this early period of cosmic history.  Professor Ellis will address the challenges of this fundamental quest for the origin of galaxies, as well as the future prospects with the Thirty Meter Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.

Presented by: Caltech Committee on Institute Programs