South Bay astronomer wins $500000 prize – Milpitas Post

In astronomy circles, Monte Sereno resident Sandra Faber is a big deal; She was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama in 2013 and last monthin recognition of her lifes workit was announced that Faber is the 2017 Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize winner.

The prize comes with a $500,000 cash award and a gold medal that Faber will receive this fall.

Faber is a retired but still working UC-Santa Cruz astronomy professor whose work really started when she was a little girl peering at the stars through her fathers binoculars.

Shes spent her life researching the formation of galaxies and the evolution of the universe.

The origin of galaxies is one of the fundamental questions of astronomy and thats what Ive been studying, Faber said. The good news is that we now understand where galaxies come from.

In 1984, Faber co-authored an article that outlined the process.

The hypothesis is to go back a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, when the temperature was a billion. billion, billion degrees, Faber said. At that time, physics was different and there was a new kind of gravity in the universe that made the universe expand faster than the speed of light.

The theory is called inflation, Faber said.

When the universe inflated, it generated small-density fluctuations that acted as seeds for normal gravity, Faber said. That drew matter in around them, creating lumps that were really more like clouds of gas. The gas made stars, and those are the galaxies we see.

Although astronomy wont put a chicken in the pot or a car in the garage, Faber says its important because it tells us where we came from, who we are and provides a prediction of our cosmic future.

Earths cosmic future is fabulous, Faber said.

Weve been given the gift of a billion years of cosmic time, and we should not screw it up, she said. But at the rate were using up our planets natural resources and fouling our own nest means were not going to last a billion years.

Which explains why she has taken to public speaking on the topic of Cosmic Knowledge and the Future of the Human Race.

Im still looking for my voice, she said. Its hard because its a message nobody wants to hear.

To hear Fabers message, visit youtube.com and input Sandra Faber into the search bar. Several speeches are posted there, including a TEDx Los Gatos talk.

Follow this link:

South Bay astronomer wins $500000 prize - Milpitas Post