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How cosmic voids were discovered with Laird Thompson
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/2OULxbK
Interview Timeline
Laird A. Thompson is Professor Emeritus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has held appointments at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, at the Universities of Hawaii and Nebraska, and is a member of the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union. He recently released a book on his part in discovering cosmic voids and what it took to earn acceptance for the science of cosmic voids. We spoke about the book, cosmology, and cosmic voids. The Discovery of Cosmic Voids (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
0:38 – Laird talks about how he got into studying cosmology.
1:53 – Laird talks about the mapping out the galaxy distribution and red shift.
5:44 – Laird talks about the focus of the book and how earlier astronomers thought about the emptiness of space between galaxies.
8:19 – Laird talks about the theories about why the galaxy has lumps and voids.
11:55 – Laird explains the concept of emptiness in space.
14:29 – Laird talks about the gravitational center of a cluster.
16:48 – Laird talks about how galaxies maintain separation.
19:48 – Laird talks about the expansion of the universe.
21:46 – Laird talks about the technology and methods used to map the universe.
23:54 – Laird talks about the assistance of computing in this work and computational astrophysics.
26:01 – Laird talks about graduate student interest in this subject.
27:25 – Laird talks about the Webb telescope.
30:56- Laird talks about the observatories that support his research.
32:20 – Laird talks about the race between teams to get results out.
38:25 – Laird talks about the mathematics and thinking behind the theories.
41:19 – Laird talks about his research for the book.
42:50 – Laird talks about being surprised that people hadn’t seen cosmic voids before.
44:21 – Laird talks about wanting to know what dark matter is.
46:43 – Laird talks about technologies that can be used to detect dark matter constituents. 48:32 – Laird talks about the support astronomers get from governments and philanthropists.
50:15 – Laird talks about resourcing space science and priority reviews.
51:46 – Laird talks about the nature of discoveries and how they are developed and accepted.
53:13 – Laird talks about getting the book published.
Links of interest
http://jc-t.com/lairdthompson/
Contact Information
For more “Technology and Space” please follow me at technologyandspace.com or www.spacewalksmoneytalks.com , on Facebook at Spacewalks Money Talks, on twitter at SpacewalksMT, on youtube at Spacewalks Money Talks , and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.
Guests: Laird Thompson
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: Books, science, artificial intelligence, astronomy, space history, audio interviews, space book, podcast, Cambridge University Press, planetary science,
Check out the book here https://amzn.to/2OULxbK
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