Astrophysicist Jack Singal discusses 'The (formerly) Invisible Universe' at University of Richmond Downtown

University of Richmond Downtown will host “The (formerly) Invisible Universe,” a discussion with UR physics professor Jack Singal, June 6 at 7 p.m. Through celestial images and other visuals, Singal will highlight what the cosmos looks like to instruments that can see different kinds of light, and why it is important.

Singal, an astrophysicist, says there is more to light than meets the eye. His presentation will introduce the whole universe of different kinds of light and how we use it to learn about supermassive black holes, gigantic explosions, all the things that make up a galaxy, and more.

“Although we can learn a lot about our universe by looking up at the sky or through a telescope with our human eyes, the cosmos is glowing in different kinds of light all over the electromagnetic spectrum, including much that our eyes can’t see,” Singal explains.

Singal says our eyes cannot see light in the form of ultraviolet, X-ray, gamma ray, microwave and radio waves.

“In order to build a complete systematic view of the universe, we need to know what it looks like in all of these different kinds of light,” he said. “The different kinds of light help us learn about formerly hidden things like black holes, super hot gas, exploding stars, flying particles, all the different forms of matter and much else.”

This presentation will be held on the lower level of UR Downtown, located at 626 E. Broad Street in Richmond. It is free and open to the public.

UR Downtown is a public space used for programming that relates to the mission of connecting University of Richmond academic departments with the Greater Richmond community. For more information about UR Downtown, visit downtown.richmond.edu.

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