About
This is an exciting time in the scientific study of the universe and
its constituents. Over thirty years ago, the
discovery of the microwave background, quasars and pulsars now interpreted as
thermal radiation from the big bang, black holes and neutron stars,
respectively, transformed the fields of cosmology and particle
astrophysics. Since this time we have learned much and been puzzled by even
more. The universe is dominated by two unidentified substances, dubbed dark
matter and dark energy, but is otherwise well-measured and mapped. The
nuclei of normal galaxies contain black holes with a million to a billion times the
mass of the sun. Neutron stars have been discovered with spin frequencies over 600 Hz
and magnetic fields up to ~1015 G.
Giant explosions called supernovae and gamma
ray bursts as powerful, as ~1018 suns, can be seen right across
the universe. Gravitational lenses, which create multiple copies of background galaxies
are commonly observed. As there are new and affordable technologies that can
still be applied to astronomical exploration and measurement we should be
confident that the next thirty years will be as interesting as the last.
Each of these discoveries brought the field
of astronomy into closer contact with physics and, today, the study of
the very large has joined the study of the very small as a source of
fundamental questions. There has been a merging of the disciplines on
three fronts.
KIPAC was founded to explore these new fronts
and challenges in particle astrophysics and cosmology.
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