Thursday, March 5, 2026
4:00 pm-5:00 pm
A new era in precision cosmology – progress and challenges in surveying our universe
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) was discovered 60 years ago, as a mysterious uniform glow coming from all directions. The CMB was soon realized to be thermal radiation leftover from the Big Bang in the early universe, and its existence and properties are cornerstones of our modern understanding of the universe. Current efforts to precisely characterize the CMB across the sky are motivated by the possibility of new physics beyond our current standard model of the universe. Other major astronomy projects are surveying the later universe, and tensions are appearing that may disrupt our understanding of the universe and its evolution. At the same time as this rapid cosmological progress, recent technological advances have led to an explosion in the number of satellites in low-earth orbit, with impacts even to telescopes at extremely remote locations like the South Pole. In this talk, I will discuss techniques and challenges in making these precision measurements, and will also discuss ongoing efforts to address and quantify impacts from large satellite constellations
