The Big Questions in the Universe
The Formation of Our Galaxy. A typical galaxy, like our Milky Way, has one hundred billion solar masses in stars. It is remarkable that one can do back-of-the-envelope estimates that lead to predictions of the characteristic mass of a galaxy. I will describe how galaxies formed. Beginning from infinitesimal fluctuations in the early universe, gravity helped concentrate the matter into clouds that fragmented into stars and assembled into galaxies. With the largest telescopes, one can look back in time and decipher the remote signatures of galactic youth and even birth.
Gresham Professor of Astronomy, Joseph Silk FRS, is one of the world's leading experts in theoretical cosmology, dark matter, galaxy formation and cosmic microwave background.
(from gresham.ac.uk)
| 04. The Formation of Our Galaxy |
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