Lectures on Tap - "How Will the Universe End?"

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🧠 Lecture: "How Will the Universe End?"

🎤 Speaker: PhD Student, Pip Petersen

Cosmology is the study of how the universe formed, evolved, and what its fate may be. Because cosmology happens across distances and timescales far beyond human experience, cosmologists cannot simply wait and watch to learn how it will all end. Instead, they must answer several fundamental questions: How old is the universe? How did it form? What is it made of?

In this talk, Pip Petersen will guide us through the clues scientists use to reconstruct the history of the cosmos and predict its future. Drawing on observations of distant galaxies, the oldest light in the universe, and cutting-edge theoretical models, Pip will build toward the biggest and scariest question of all: how will the universe end, and how could we possibly know that? Will it collapse back in on itself, rip itself apart, slowly fade away as all the stars die, or something else entirely?

Pip is a PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in theoretical astrophysics at the University of Washington. Outside of research, he is deeply involved in science outreach and education, from presenting public planetarium shows to teaching science in juvenile detention facilities throughout the Seattle area.

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