Space: What's Out There?

Galaxies are the building blocks of our Universe. However, the stars, gas and dust we see in them is only the tip of the iceberg. Around four fifths of a galaxy seems to be made of a substance we cannot see directly, so called 'dark matter'. This talk will outline how astronomers use the fact that galaxies warp space and time to learn about the dark matter in them. By analysing a large number of galaxies across our Universe, astronomers hope to one day understand the nature of this mysterious matter.

"We now know that outer space is rich in complex chemicals. Most are found where new stars are being formed and it is thought that this complexity is behind the formation of small, long-lived stars such as our own Sun. So what is the origin of the chemical diversity found in deep space?
What chemistries are at play in the unique extremely low pressure and low temperature environment of this interstellar medium? How do we manage to detect these incredibly remote molecules and what do they tell us?

On large scales our Universe is pretty simple to understand. Well described by General Relativity, it is very uniform with structures being seeded from gravitational instability whose origin resides somewhere in the earliest moments of the Universe’s evolution. But what is the dark matter made of, what is the dark energy that is driving the Universe into a period of acceleration presently, and what were the origins of the seed fluctuations from which all structures emerged? In this hopefully fun talk we will tackle these questions as we try to understand the nature of our Universe.