Film Night May – Cosmos – 45 years Later – The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

Subject: Introduction to the scale of the Cosmos using the “Ship of the Imagination”; cosmic calendar; Eratosthenes and the Library of Alexandria; humanity’s place in the universe. 45 Years Later:

• Hubble Space Telescope (1990–) and JWST (2022–) have mapped billions of galaxies and precise cosmic distances; universe age refined to 13.8 billion years.
• Discovery of cosmic microwave background anisotropies (COBE/WMAP/Planck) and accelerating expansion (dark energy, 1998).
• Exoplanets: from zero in 1980 to >6,100 confirmed; billions likely in the Milky Way alone.