Hans-Walter Rix

In the beginning there was light - around 13.8 billion years ago, the Big Bang marked the beginning of the history of our cosmos. How could stars and galaxies suddenly emerge from darkness? What did it look like, the light of the first day? Heidelberg astrophysicist Hans-Walter Rix has been asking himself these questions for more than two decades. The James Webb Space Telescope, which has been floating in space since 2021, is now sending images he has been waiting for for years. They show what the universe looked like after the Big Bang and provide unprecedented insights into the galaxy. The lecture takes a time travel through the history of the universe and clarifies how many stars were already part of the first galaxies and whether we now have to rewrite the Big Bang theory.

Prof. Dr. Hans-Walter Rix is director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. He researches the formation of galaxies, their structure and dynamics and is involved in major international astrophysics projects of NASA and ESA.

As part of the International Science Festival - Geist Heidelberg

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