Abstract:
Does our Universe have a finite origin or has it existed unchanged for all eternity?  Either answer has profound implications about the nature of our reality.  I will discuss how astronomers came to the conclusion that the Universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago.  I will describe the physics behind the Big Bang and what modern observations tell us about the structure and evolution of the Universe over cosmic time and how the contents of the Universe will dictate its ultimate fate.

Biosketch:
Dale Kocevski is an assistant professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Colby College.  Dale attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate and later obtained a PhD in Astrophysics at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.  He performed his postdoctoral work at the University of California in both Davis and Santa Cruz.  Dale’s research focuses on the study of supermassive black holes and how they affect the growth and evolution of distant galaxies.  Dale’s work utilizes multi-wavelength observations ranging from the X-ray to the infrared, with a particular focus on imaging from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.  Dale has served on numerous advisory panels for NASA and has helped shape the direction of Hubble’s science mission.

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