Our understanding of the universe around us continues to grow at an amazing pace.\u00a0 Today we hear terminology such as \u201cDark Matter,\u201d \u201cDark Energy,\u201d and \u201cAccelerating Universe\u201d in relation to how we understand the past, present, and future of our universe.\u00a0 However, while our these are important concepts, we really don\u2019t know what they are or even precisely how they work.\u00a0 For example, the existence of dark energy was discovered through a specific type of exploding star, or supernova.\u00a0 But at present we aren\u2019t even certain how those stars explode.\u00a0 Because of the importance of understanding these supernovae, a lot of work in astronomical research is being dedicated to this problem.\u00a0 But how can an astronomer at a small institution like Valpo contribute?\u00a0 I discuss how I discovered the \u201croad less traveled\u201d and how I am using it to add new perspectives to these studies.
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Our understanding of the universe around us continues to grow at an amazing pace.\u00a0 Today we hear terminology such as \u201cDark Matter,\u201d \u201cDark Energy,\u201d and \u201cAccelerating Universe\u201d in relation to how we understand the past, present, and future of our universe.\u00a0 However, while our these are important concepts, we really don\u2019t know what they are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6051,"template":"","academic_year":[174],"class_list":["post-18015","professorial_lecture","type-professorial_lecture","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","academic_year-2019-2020"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4.png",447,572,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4-234x300.png",234,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4.png",447,572,false],"large":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4.png",447,572,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4.png",447,572,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4.png",447,572,false],"Profile":["https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4-300x300.png",300,300,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"heather.bricker@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/heather-brickervalpo-edu\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Our understanding of the universe around us continues to grow at an amazing pace.\u00a0 Today we hear terminology such as \u201cDark Matter,\u201d \u201cDark Energy,\u201d and \u201cAccelerating Universe\u201d in relation to how we understand the past, present, and future of our universe.\u00a0 However, while our these are important concepts, we really don\u2019t know what they are…","featured_img":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2024\/11\/Picture4.png","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/heather-brickervalpo-edu\/","display_name":"heather.bricker@valpo.edu"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 7 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 10, 2019","modified":"Updated on February 20, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 10, 2019 4:12 pm","modified":"Updated on February 20, 2025 4:13 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","tax_additional":{"academic_year":{"linked":["2019-2020<\/a>"],"unlinked":["2019-2020<\/span>"],"slug":"academic_year","name":"Academic Years"}},"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/professorial_lecture\/18015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/professorial_lecture"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/professorial_lecture"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/professorial_lecture\/18015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18016,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/professorial_lecture\/18015\/revisions\/18016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"academic_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/academic_year?post=18015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}