The Bigger Picture

The expansion of the universe is accelerating, and we do not yet have a compelling explanation for it. In this talk, Rossana will present the science she is leading within a new incredible telescope to understand the physical mechanism behind this accelerated expansion.
Rossana Ruggeri completed her PhD degree at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation in the UK. She is currently leading the Dark-Energy-Spectroscopic-Intrument lensing team investigating ways to test the theory of gravity and dark energy using galaxy lensing and clustering combined together.

What happens if you throw two galaxies at each other? One of the most dramatic events galaxies undergo is collisions. They can cause bursts of star formation, ignite the central engine, and is ultimately how galaxies grow.

Rebecca McElroy completed her PhD in 2018 at the University of Sydney. Since then she has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, USyd, and is now a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Rebecca is an expert in galaxy mergers, active galaxies, and optical integral field spectroscopy.

In this talk Abbe will discuss how the motions of galaxies, which attract and pull on each other via their gravity, can tell cosmologists about the nature of gravity and the matter that makes up our Universe, including dark matter.

Abbe Whitford is a second year PhD candidate at the University of Queensland in the field of cosmology and astrophysics. Her research focuses on the Large Scale Structure of the Universe. Aside from her research Abbe has a general interest in understanding the natural world and loves all things science. In her spare time she is learning BJJ.