Overview

Spectacular images of the Universe are everywhere, from fashion and music videos to advertisements selling everything from shoes to cars. They appear on our clothes, walls and screens as posters and wallpapers. Beyond their beauty these colourful images hold scientific meaning: they tell us how far away celestial objects are, what they're made of, and how they've evolved over time.

In this talk we'll explore how scientists use spectroscopy, the study of light's "rainbow fingerprints", to decode the cosmos. We'll also discover how this same technique is used here on Earth to detect fraud in food systems, and to test the claims made about your favourite astronomy-themed t-shirt.

Along the way, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look at how these spectral fingerprints are curated, preserved, and shared with astronomers around the world using powerful tools for comparing data and running analyses, all through Australia’s national astronomy data platform. 

Register here: https://event.mq.edu.au/discover-lecture-series/registration/Site/Register