John Mather, an astrophysicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006, spoke to a forum of University Park residents Saturday on the past, present, and future of scientific discovery. The talk took place at the University Park Church of the Brethren and was organized by the solar-energy company University Park Community Solar (UPCS).

“Since I was a little kid, everything has changed completely,” Mather told his audience. “We’ve been on an amazing scientific adventure for the last 50 years—progress in every field.”

Mather guided his audience through a slideshow presentation of telescopes and how they work, as well as photographs of the night sky, deep space, and well-renowned telescopic observatories and space-based telescopes.

Mather also highlighted famous scientists and explained some of the most important scientific discoveries of the last 100 years, like Edwin Hubble’s 1929 observation that the universe is expanding; also, the later realization that the universe has no apparent center; it is “expanding within itself”—a remark that drew exclamations and questions from intrigued but perplexed audience members.

“It’s very interesting and provocative stuff,” said Ivan Schellenberger, a resident and parishioner, afterwards about Mather’s presentation. “But it’s a challenging subject for anyone to get completely.”  

Mather also showed diagrams that depicted the early history of the universe, starting with the Big Bang and leading up to the formation of earth. Then he talked about what the future holds for earth and the solar system: Earth will suffer an energy crisis as fossil fuels run low in the next century, and a solar crisis a billion years from now as the sun swells up into a “red giant” and burns earth’s surface. Also, a collision is expected between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy in the next few billion years.

Mather also talked about new areas of research, such as the search for extraterrestrial life, the sightings of more than 1,000 planets orbiting other stars, and cutting-edge telescopic tools that can make long-distance analyses of those planets’ atmospheres and surfaces. “Dark matter” and “dark energy,” which elude direct observation by human astronomical tools but seem to constitute the bulk of the universe, are other subjects that astronomers have been exploring intensively in recent decades.  

“Being a scientist, you get to work on huge mysteries and perhaps make a little progress. It’s like the universe is a huge crossword puzzle and we’re all working on it,” Mather said.

The audience was also treated to motion-picture clips of recently built space-based telescopes, and one motion-picture clip presenting the James Webb Space Telescope, which is now being built and is expected to be launched in 2014. It will orbit earth and scope out the remnants of the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, plus higher-resolution views of the stars and planets in our own Milky Way Galaxy.   

“It’s a great time to be a scientist, and I hope some of you—I’m speaking to the short people (the youth)—will take this in and become scientists,” Mather said.  

According to Richard Scorza, UPCS board member, Mather considered the young people his top priority. The Nobel Prize winner had expressed great interest in explaining to young people how they can start exploring careers in science.

“It’s the kids in elementary school that are fertile ground to plant the seeds of a new generation of scientists,” said Scorza.

Mather now works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Mather and his colleague George Smoot, University of California-Berkeley astrophysicist, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for measuring the precise properties of cosmic microwave background radiation, the residual radiation from the “Big Bang” that scientists believe gave birth to the known universe. Mather and Smoot’s observations about the radiation have been considered the most conclusive proof to date that the Big Bang event took place.

UPCS hopes to host three more talks this year, with the next one probably taking place in September. Scorza said that the guest speakers will all be scientists who will talk about their respective fields of research and related societal challenges, such as the environment and climate change.     

“We’re essentially trying to raise the awareness of people in the community about scientific issues,” said Scorza.

Scorza credited Sarah Moseley, town resident and UPCS board member, with finding Mather. Her husband, Harvey Moseley, is a Goddard astrophysicist and works with Mather. Moseley told Patch that raising public interest in science is critical for advancing solar energy.

“Solar energy is going to have to have more new scientists become involved to develop the technology further,” she said. She added that, like Mather, she is particularly hopeful that young people could be key. If even a few more young people gain new interest in scientific careers, one or more of them might go on to become scientists who make groundbreaking innovations.

“We never know where a great new scientific discovery is going to come from,” Moseley said.  

Many residents might be surprised to know that they have a Nobel Prize winner living nearby. But Dave Brosch, president of UPCS, pointed out that many talented science professionals live in or around University Park—and through this lecture series, residents could get to know quite a few of them.   

“There’s no shortage of people around to talk about the issues. We’ve got the University of Maryland nearby, and we’ve got a lot of talented and smart people around here doing research. We’ve got a big knowledge base,” said Brosch.