| Professor Peter Quinn, who gave a lecture about finding the ‘da... Professor Peter Quinn, who gave a lecture about finding the ‘dawn of creation,’ with Director of the Science Centre and Planetarium Glen Moore |
Finding the dawn of creation
8 Jul 2008 | Kate McIlwain
An overview of modern astronomy and the quest to find the dawn of creation was the focus of a free public lecture at UOW’s Science Centre and Planetarium last week.
As part of the Illawarra Innovation Showcase Forum, Professor Peter Quinn, the Premier’s Fellow from the School of Physics, University of Western Australia, delivered the address entitled “First Light: An overview of modern astronomy and our quest to find the dawn of creation”.
Astronomy is the oldest scientific endeavour of mankind. The pattern and regular motions of the sun, moon, stars and other planets have guided agriculture, religion, technological development and journeys of discovery since before recorded history.
Over the past 400 years, the invention and the development of telescopes has allowed us to step outside our own solar system to begin a new voyage of discovery, back in time, to the birth of the cosmos. On the journey so far, we have found a treasure trove of objects and phenomena from star destroying black holes, to whole galaxies in the process of collision, to new planets like our own Earth.
Professor Quinn spoke about how we are now nearing a period in our cosmic time travel that will contain one of the Universe’s most profound events –- the first light from the first star – the “dawn of creation”.
He said that this event will be found and studied by a new telescope which, when completed in 2020, will be the world’s largest astronomical facility. The telescope is called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), and Western Australia is currently the front-runner in an international competition to host the SKA.
The remote desert of WA, home to Aboriginal peoples who are arguably the world’s first astronomers, may provide mankind with its clearest view of the first objects created-–the seeds of the Universe we see around us today.
In his talk, Professor Quinn gave a broad overview of our cosmic journey back in time-–what we have found so far, what mysteries we have uncovered and what we hope to find with the new generation of telescopes we are about to build.
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