Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton (AAAP) Monthly Meeting

Gravitational lensing and other phenomena help to show the distribution of mass within galaxies and throughout the universe, revealing the connection between the dark and bright sides of the Universe. On galactic scales, the observed mass distribution extends considerably beyond the dimensions we observe in luminous objects. How can stars, which represent only about one percent of the total mass of the universe, follow the total mass so well? Where are the rest of the baryons? Prof. Bahcall will discuss the connection between baryons, stars, and mass at large scales, and the implications for galaxy formation, the mass-density of the universe, and cosmology.