How did this universe we call home come to be?
The leading theory says it all started nearly 14 billion years ago with a singularity that quickly expanded. Called the Big Bang, that tiny event would become a universe filled with planets and stars and intergalactic gases and comets and … well, a lot of other things, including us. And it all happened in “a cosmic blink of an eye.”
“The Big Bang was a very small yet very massive event. We don’t know exactly how it happened, or how we got here,” said Mark Hanhardt, experiment support scientist at Sanford Lab. “But the character of the universe likely was decided in the first few seconds.”
But there’s a lot more to the story behind the Big Bang. In this week's upcoming Deep Talks presentation, Hanhardt will take us through the very first seconds of the universe all the way to the end, with a brief stop in between to discuss the universe as it exists today.
In his role at Sanford Lab, Hanhardt works closely with scientists on multiple physics experiments underground and on the surface. A Ph.D. student at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, he works on the Compact Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR), a low-energy accelerator.
“The Big Bang and the Fate of the Universe” takes place Thursday, Oct. 12, at the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. The event begins at 5 p.m. with a social hour; the talk begins at 6 p.m. Free beer from Crow Peak Brewing Company in Spearfish is available for those 21 and older. Deep Talks is sponsored by Sanford Lab, the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center, Crow Peak and First Interstate Bank.
Click here to find out more about the Big Bang Theory.