I will review the prospects for future
progress in cosmology. I will give examples of two futuristic
experiments. One seeks the dark ages signature via low
frequency radio astronomy on the far side of the Moon to
provide a robust probe of inflationary cosmology. A second
involves a far infrared telescope in a permanently shadowed
lunar crater to search for the elusive deviations from the
blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background that
were generated early in cosmic history. These concepts could
be implemented in the coming decades of lunar exploration,
along with other, even more ambitious, telescope projects.
About the Speaker:
Joseph Silk is a researcher at the
Institute of Astrophysics, Sorbonne University and Bloomberg
Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns
Hopkins University. He previously was a professor at Pierre
and Marie Curie University, Paris, Savilian Professor of
Astronomy at the University of Oxford, and Professor of
Astronomy and Physics at the University of California,
Berkeley. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,
and a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences. Silk received his PhD in astronomy from
Harvard University in 1968. His research interests include
cosmology, galaxy formation and dark matter. His pioneering
predictions of the damping of cosmic microwave background
radiation fluctuations have been verified by recent
experiments. His former PhD students and postdoctoral
researchers include some of the leading workers in theoretical
astrophysics and cosmology. Silk received the International
Balzan Prize, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical
Society, and the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the
American Astronomical Society for his achievements and has
published several popular books.