Professor Schmidt will describe how, in 1998, two teams of astronomy researchers traced back the expansion of the universe over billions of years and discovered that it was accelerating.

This startling discovery suggests that more than 70 per cent of the cosmos is contained in a previously unknown form of matter called dark energy. 

One of the teams responsible for this critical discovery, the high-Redshift supernova search team, was under the leadership of Professor Schmidt. 

In his lecture, Professor Schmidt will explore how astronomers have used observations to trace our universe's history back more than 13 billion years, leading them to ponder the ultimate fate of the cosmos.

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded jointly to Professor Schmidt and his colleague from the High-Z supernova team, Adam Reiss, and Saul Perlmutter who led the Supernova Cosmology Project for this discovery “of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae”.  

Professor Schmidt remains at the forefront of research in this pivotal area of astronomy and has received numerous accolades for his work. 

He is now based at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, where he is a distinguished professor, and continues his investigation of the expanding universe and also leads the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey project.   

 The Accelerating Universe, a CSU Explorations public lecture, will be presented at CSU Orange (Leeds Parade) on Friday from 6pm in lecture theatre three (1004/120). 

CSU wines and refreshments will be served following the lecture. 

Please RSVP Ms Ellie Hampton on 6338 4200 or ehampton@csu.edu.au.