Keynote: ALMA, Chile, and the new challenges facing astronomy at the beginning of the 21st Century

Опубликовано 21 июня 2016, 20:45

Chair: Jaime Puente, Microsoft Research Speaker: Eduardo Hardy, Representative in Chile, Associated Universities Inc., National Radio Astronomy Observatory, ALMA, CCAT Our vision of the Universe has changed radically over the last few years. New transformational instruments, such as ALMA, are making possible the exploration of this new Universe while Chile is fast becoming the center of the astronomy world with most new astronomy projects already located or to be located there. This presentation will briefly trace the evolution of astronomy and will provide a description of the main important recent science issues for which these new instruments are being built, with emphasis on the conceptual challenges facing today's astrophysicist, including the study of star formation, normal and dark matter, dark energy, inflation, etc. I will also describe some technical observational challenges, including the handling of the immense output of data coming out of ALMA and other instruments as well as the use of computational visualizations and machine learning techniques. Is it true that "investing in science pays off"?