Planetarium Event: Cosmic Flashes in the Radio Sky

The WVU Planetarium, in conjunction with the Hardesty Festival of Ideas, is proud to host a presentation by Dr. Maura McLaughlin and Dr. Duncan Lorimer. We think of the night sky as ephemeral, with the same stars visible night after night. Over the past couple of decades, thanks to advances in technology, astronomers have been able to look at the Universe on shorter and shorter time scales, finding that “the transient sky” has many sources from a variety of exotic phenomena. In this talk we will focus on radio transients and tell the story of Fast Radio Bursts which we found over a decade ago. While we don’t yet know what powers these bursts, this rapidly developing field promises many surprises and applications in the coming decade. Dr. Maura McLaughlin and Dr. Duncan Lorimer will highlight these, and the role that WVU researchers might play in this endeavor.

WVU Planetarium
135 Willey St, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA