Event

A Conversation with the Stars

Take a journey through 13.8 billion years of cosmic history as we explore the lives of two star-crossed photons that originated on opposite sides of the universe but will soon come together to help humans resolve one of the great mysteries of modern astronomy: what happens when galaxies go through adolescence? The past century of observations have provided promising leads, but the full story remains (literally) hidden beneath unimaginably thick obscuring blankets of gas and dust. With the coming next generation of giant telescopesincluding the (relatively) soon-to-launch James Webb Space Telescopeastronomers will have a new powerful set of tools to peer through these obscuring clouds and see with newfound clarity where our twin protagonist photons came from.

Dr. Jason Marshall received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Cornell University and subsequently worked as a postdoc at JPL and staff scientist at Caltech. He now spends time teaching about the cosmos at Glendale Community College. When not teaching, Jason still works with his Caltech colleagues to write data analysis software and journal articles about the light output from starburst galaxies and black-hole-powered active galactic nuclei. He is also a member of one of the 13 Early Release Science program teams selected to make the first round of observations with the new James Webb Space Telescope. When not teaching or researching, Jason can be found on the internet moonlighting as The Math Dude. His blog and podcast about math has received millions of views and listens and remained one of the most popular education podcasts on iTunes since it debuted in 2007.