On Friday 3rd July at 19.00h in the Museum of Science and the Cosmos of Museums of Tenerife the Canadian astrophysicist Stéphane Courteau will give a lecture entitled “What’s the matter with the universe?” in English (with simultaneous translation into Spanish). 

This will be the third outreach talk in the series given by leading astronomers who have participated in EWASS 2015 (The European Week of Astronomy and Space Science) the largest astronomy conference at European level, which was held recently in Tenerife.

Recent astronomical discoveries have shown us a mysterious universe where the nature of a majority of the mass and energy are unknown. All the material which we can see is probably a very small fraction of the mass of the universe. Although we think we know where the greater part of the material is: in the so-called “dark matter” component, we still don’t know what it is! In what kind of a strange universe do we live? And if the universe has its dark side, what is it hiding?

Stéphane Courteau will talk to us about dark matter and dark energy and the most recent theories about the universe. Using historical notes, anecdotes, and animations, he will relate the history of one of the most fascinating astrophysical discoveries, the existence of invisible material. Queen’s University in Canada is a leader in the search for the elusive dark matter particles, the so-called WIMPS and Courteau will give an overview of the projects, present and future, which will try to resolve this puzzle, one of the most exciting in modern physics, during the next decade.

Stéphane Courteau is Professor of Astrophysics at the Queen’s University. His thesis was about dark matter, and his speciality is its distribution in galaxies similar to ours, and the evolution of cosmic structures. He has given over 200 lectures in many parts of the world. His talk in the Museum will be a global, up to date and lively view of the most recent ideas about the universe. 

EWASS 2015, (the most recent in the series), the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, coordinated locally by the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries (IAC), was held between 22nd and 26th June on the Guajara Campus of the University of La Laguna. It was organized by the European Astronomical Society, in collaboration with the Spanish Astronomical Society, the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries, and the University of La Laguna.