The Cosmos Seen Through the Planck Satellite Eyes
| Date/Time: | Monday, 12 Sep 2016 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Phys 0003 |
| Contact: | Gloria Oberender |
| Phone: | 515-294-5441 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation allows us to study processes of the very early Universe. The detailed study of its anisotropies with the Planck satellite allowed to determine cosmological parameters at unprecedented level of precision. As a byproduct, it also provided important results in several areas of astrophysics such as the detection of clusters through their Sunyavev-Zeldovich signature and characterization of Galactic emission at microwave and infrared wavelengths. The Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009, has recently released a new set of data which also include polarization results. I will review the main achievements of the new release, including the determination of main cosmological parameters, epoch of star formation, galaxy clusters detection and use. I will also discuss the recent news about the detection and subsequent non-detection of primordial gravitational waves, and what the future will likely bring us.
Bio: Elena Pierpaoli is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California. She graduated in physics from the University of Milan, and then received her PhD in Astrophysics from the International school of Advanced Studies in Trieste. As a theoretical cosmologist, she got interested in a wide range of topics including parameter estimation, dark matter and structure formation. She has been part of the Planck satellite project from the very beginning, getting involved in aspects of data analysis and parameter estimation. In recent years, she primary worked on galaxy clusters and CMB data analysis.