President speaker series explores the beginnings of the universe

The next chapter in the President Speaker Series is called “Listening to the Universe for the Sounds of Creation.” This event was hosted Janna Levin, a cosmologist who researches the early universe as well as the science and behavior of black holes.

Levin is a professor of astronomy and physics at Columbia University. She has also written two books, “How the World Got Its Spots” and “A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines”. She holds a BA in Physics and Astronomy from Barnard College and doctorate from MIT in Physics. Levin also worked at Cambridge University in England in the Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics departments.

Levin began her presentation by discussing the very beginning of the universe and how the theoretical Big Bang created the world everyone lives on today. After the solar system was fully formed, she then described how many scientists and artists, like herself, became fascinated with the fact that there is much more than what the human eye can capture.

The primary focus of Levin’s presentation was the scientific behavior of black holes, including what happens when an object gets pulled into the black hole, what it looks like on the inside and what it sounds like.

“Even though a black hole is dark on the outside doesn’t mean it is dark on the inside,” Levin explained. “On the inside, black holes are actually bright. As you pass through the black hole’s event horizon and get crushed by the singularity due to the gravity, you see this bright flash of light.”

Students from Delta College were intrigued by the broad topic of traveling through space and, in some cases, time.

James Morgan, a Delta College graduate as well as a CMU graduate, enjoyed the event.

“The presentation was really interesting,” Morgan said. “It broadened what I’ve already been taught and made some things I had known make more sense.”

Andrew Jansen, 22, is a student at Delta working toward an Associate’s degree. He did not completely agree with what other students had to say due to his personal beliefs.

“It was interesting, but the concepts were hard to follow,” Jansen said. “I’m a Christian and I do have a different perspective of how the universe started, but I could see the biblical correlation with the Big Bang theory.”

Space travel is very broad, and while there’s much that has been learned about our own solar system, many scientists have more they want to learn about inside and outside of the Milky Way.