Mon, May 23 from 10:30 – 11:30pm EDT Science & Technology In 1929, Carnegie astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding and revolutionized our perspective on the cosmos. Decades of discovery followed. The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1990 enabled astronomers to make measurements of the universe with unprecedented accuracy. The December 25, 2021, launch of the James Webb Space Telescope promises even higher accuracy. Dr. Freedman spent 30 years of her career at the Carnegie Observatories, 11 of those as Director. She is best known for measuring how fast the universe is expanding, a quantity known as the Hubble constant, which gives a measure of the size and the age of the universe. She will describe the historical quest to measure these quantities and how recent HST results suggest that there may be a missing piece in our current understanding of cosmology. Dr. Wendy L. Freedman: John and Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the College, The University of Chicago Image: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and R. Gendler (for the Hubble Heritage Team). Acknowledgment: J. GaBany.
