WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:33 — 40.2MB)
On May 23, Alec Hirschauer, a Ph.D candidate in Indiana University’s Astronomy program, met with the Science Cafe of Bloomington to talk about the ways that scientists can use diffracted light to learn about the cosmos. He discusses the way that astronomy has changed over the years, from Galileo to modern day science. Alec talks about the ways that diffracted light can be used to make a rainbow, as well as how astronomers measure the expansion of the universe and what “the stuff between the stars” is made of. Alec recently discovered the galaxy Leoncino during his dissertation studies. Leoncino is the most metal-poor galaxy known in our local universe, and it mimics what star formations looked like after the Big Bang. Standing Room Only corespondent Marta Shocket recorded today’s episode.
