2024 events

Sun 31st
15:30-16:00
Starlight Room

Background Radiation in Two Spectrums

Chris Morley

LVAS

The existence of the Cosmic Microwave Background was predicted some years before it was discovered in 1965. Since then, it has been mapped in great detail by a succession of dedicated probes. I will discuss how and why it exists as well as what it means for our understanding of the universe. Whilst detection of gravitational waves from relatively close inspiral events has been occurring since 2015, it was just last year that the presence of ultra-low frequency gravitational waves was confirmed. I will explain how the Murriyang Parkes radio telescope played an important role in finding evidence of background gravity waves, which are thought to have originated from the mergers of super massive galaxies.

Chris is a retired Electrical Engineer who has been interested in astronomy since early childhood. Acquiring his own telescope in 2005, he soon built an observatory where he and his wife enjoy showing family and friends the wonders of the night sky. Chris also enjoys nightscape- and astro-photography, and identifying objects of special interest in the sky. He has held an amateur radio licence for over forty years and currently holds the Victorian distance record for two-way voice-over-lightbeam communication. Chris is president of the Latrobe Valley Astronomical Society in Gippsland and likes the educational value of researching new topics.