Part of my job is disseminating the science we do here at the Cosmic Dawn Center. Get in touch if you want to hear about astronomy — I happily give talks and interviews, as well as take part in more untraditional events.
Radio & podcast
- Black holes — a dark tale of gravity and more… (Tino Tønnesen/IDA Space Talks)
- The Euclid space telescope has been launched, and is on its way to join James Webb (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 00:33:45)
- The Big Bang; what happened, and was it really the beginning of time? (Tino Tønnesen/IDA Space Talks)
- How does a mirror know what's behind the paper? (Martin Plauborg/P3; at 59:30)
- The formation, evolution, diversity, and history of galaxies (Tino Tønnesen/IDA Space Talks)
- Are we living in a simulation? (Christian Fuhlendorff, Masoud Vahedi & Christian Frederiksen/Op af Kaninhullet; at 49:25)
- Winter solstice topic on darkness (Tony Scott & Amalie Bremer/Radio4; at 01:20:00)
- Record distant galaxy confirmed with James Webb (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 00:19:35)
- Distance record-breaking galaxies with James Webb? (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 01:15:03)
- Magical images from space (Johan Olsen & Vicky Knudsen/P1)
- The hunt for the beginning of the Universe (about James Webb's first galaxies) (Kaare Svejstrup/Pilestræde @ Berlingske)
- James Webb's first images (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 01:00:53)
- How do you discover galaxies? And how do you follow their evolution over millions of years?(Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 00:06:10)
- James Webbs instrumenter er endelig klar, og de første videnskabelige observationer er taget (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 01:01:55)
- James Webb has reached its target temperature, and all its mirrors are in place (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4; at 01:00:30)
- The "missing link" between galaxies and quasars (Thomas Schumann/Den Nye Rumalder; at 38:45)
- Astronomers found a bunch of "rogue" planets without stars (Camilla Boraghi & Mads Bjerregaard/Den Uafhængige; at 1:01:10)
- James Webb had its first light (Nicolai Dupont/Radio4)
- James Webb is home! (Kasper Harboe/Radio4)
- More on James Webb (Kasper Harboe/Radio4)
- What can go wrong for James Webb? (Astrid Date/Radio4)
- Discussion with an astral traveler (Anton Ringdal & Kristoffer Kristensen/Radio LOUD)
- Which question would I like answered the most (Tina Ipsen & Anders Høeg Nissen/RumSnak; at 4:12)
- A new spiral arm in the Milky Way? (Dagmar Eben Østergaard & Astrid Date/Radio 4; at 3:40)
- Astronomers predict supernova explosion in 2037 (Maria Dohn & Anders Bech-Jessen/P1 Morgen; at 1:16:37)
- Time (travel) & entropy in Nolan's TENET (Simon Schmidt & Svenne Lund Jensen/Radio 4)
- The Big Bang (Tina Ipsen & Anders Høeg Nissen/RumSnak)
- Autumn's night sky in Norway (Kari Slaatsveen/NRK P1)
- Exoplanet β Pictoris c (Kristoffer Lind/Radio 24syv)
- Stars vs. grains of sand (Elise Farestveit/NRK P1)
- Is the Earth flat? Testing with FE'er Ole Lochmann (Per Lysholt/Radio 24syv)
- Dark energy (Peter Lund Madsen/Hjernekassen på P1)
- Popular misunderstandings about the Big Bang (Maj Bach Madsen/Radio 24syv)
Newspapers (real papers & online)
- 30 shooting stars per hour: Meteor swarm brightens the night sky (Lauge Germunddsson/TV2 Øst)
- Reported by e.g. Ekstra Bladet
- Peter studies the early galaxies – now you can have him home for a talk in your living room (Marie Kjempff/TV2 Kosmopol)
- Invite a researcher for a free talk at home (Peter Rasmussen/Ritzau)
- Reported by e.g. Berlingske, B.T., Kristeligt Dagblad, MSN, Ugeavisen, Stiften, and Jyllands-Posten
- Increasing light pollution makes star-gazing difficult (Johan Gudmandsen/videnskab.dk)
- James Webb announced the breakthrough of the year (Christian Lindberg/videnskab.dk)
- Cosmic mystery: Galaxies from the early Universe appear much bigger than ought to be (Johan Gudmandsen/videnskab.dk)
- Are there more universes than this? (Mette Mølgaard/videnskab.dk)
- What does James Webb's first five images show? (Frederik Sonne/videnskab.dk)
- Will black holes swallow the whole Universe? (Simon Taarnskov Aabech/videnskab.dk)
- Article translated to Norwegian on forskning.no
- What will the James Webb Space Telescope look for in the Universe? (Simon Taarnskov Aabech/videnskab.dk)
- James Webb's observational schedule is out now (Henrik Bendix/Ingeniøren)
- Hubble detects most distant single star yet, 28 billion lightyears away (Sally Cole Johnson/Laser Focus World)
- Researchers found at least 70 new rogue planets (Mette Mølgaard/videnskab.dk)
- Mankind's new eyes in space (Søren Flott/Dagbladenes Bureau)
- A Golden Guiding Star (Gunver Lystbæk Vestergård/Weekendavisen)
- This is how Life, Earth, the Sun, and the Universe end (Mikkel Vuorela/Information)
- Danish participation in the Jamew Webb Space Telescope (Frederik Thymark/videnskab.dk)
- A new spiral arm in the Milky Way? (Rasmus Fredsted/videnskab.dk)
- Article translated to Norwegian on forskning.no
- What keeps the Solar System in place in the Milky Way? (Christian Lindberg/videnskab.dk)
- Also published in different versions in various newspapers, e.g. B.T., Kristeligt Dagblad, JydskeVestkysten, Sjællandske Nyheder og Brædstrup Avis.
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 (Anne Reil-Gammelgaard/Dagbladet Information)
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 (Niklas Asp Nielsen/videnskab.dk)
- Nolan's "TENET": Time & entropy (Frederik Sonne/videnskab.dk)
- Article translated to Norwegian on forskning.no
- Stars vs. grains of sand (Frederik Sonne/videnskab.dk)
- Article translated to Norwegian on forskning.no
- Article quoted in Ude & Hjemme
- Flat Earth (Martin Huseby Jensen/ABC Nyheter)
- The very first moment (Marianne Nordahl/forskning.no)
- Milky Way collision (Charlotte Price Persson/videnskab.dk)
- Galactic winds (Henrik Bendix/videnskab.dk)
- Article translated to Norwegian on forskning.no
- Aurora (Johanne Trærup/Ekstra Bladet)
- Weightlessness (Berit Viuf/Politiken)
- Where in the Universe did Big Bang happen (Sybille Hildebrandt/videnskab.dk)
TV & video
- How to build a galaxy / Culture Night 2023 (Ola Joensen/NBI)
- The Danish Science Festival / Book A Scientist (Stine Sylvestersen/TV2 Kosmopol)
- 5 things you should know about the James Webb telescope (videnskab.dk)
- James Webb's first images (Mette Blomsterberg/DR Aftenshowet)
- James Webb's first images to be released (Lennart Sten/TV2 NEWS)
- Niels Bohr Institute centennial (Niels Christian Buhl/TV2 Lorry; at 12:00)
- James Webb Space Telescope launch (Clara Rørsig/DR TV Avis; at 3:10)
- James Webb Space Telescope launch (TV2 Nyheder)
- James Webb Space Telescope launch; commenting on the process (Anders Havndrup/TV2 NEWS)
- "Kometernes Jul" (TV2 Christmas calendar 2021/I don't appear personally, but my equations on light and thermodynamics do)
- Co-quizmastering The Science Club science quiz for high-school students (Charlotte Price & Gustav Hylsberg Jacobsen/Videnskabsklubben)
- "Everything in the Universe is built of little particles" (Naturvidenskabens ABC)
- My video "5 things you must know about galaxies" on TV (TV2/Lorry)
- Guesting a satire TV show, talking about entropically dissolving the government (Jonatan Spang/Tæt På Sandheden)
- Astrophysical implications of a giant truffle cake (Jonatan Spang/Tæt På Sandheden)
- Watch the full episode here
- Q&A about cosmology
- 5 things you should know about galaxies (video on videnskab.dk)
- Brorfelde Observatory; a documentary (Søren K. Lynggard/Cph. Astronomical Society)
- The creation of the Universe (Hannah Heilmann/Ingen Frygt)
If you speak Danish, click below to see 5 things you should know about the James Webb Space Telescope:
or here for 5 things you should know about about galaxies:
or here to learn how everything is made of particles:
I regularly write small articles in laymen's terms about our research at the Cosmic Dawn Center.
Some of these are picked up and reported by other media, of which I list the major ones (Danish sites, and foreign media with ≥ several million viewers/month) below.
Press releases
- Webb observes the glowing embers of colliding neutron stars
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Colliding neutron stars provide a new way to measure the expansion of the Universe
- Picked up by e.g. phys.org, Science Daily, and Astronomy & Astrophysics news.
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Astronomers discover newborn galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope
- Picked up by e.g. videnskab.dk, New Scientist, Universe Today, and ScienMag.
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James Webb’s “too massive” galaxies may be even more massive
- Picked up by e.g. phys.org, SciTechDaily, and Universe Today.
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Nearby galaxies help astronomers understand distant galaxies
- Picked up by e.g. phys.org and The Indian Express.
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The brightest explosion ever seen
- Picked up by e.g. videnskab.dk and Weekendavisen.
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Radio- and microwaves reveal the true nature of dark galaxies in the early Universe
- Picked up by e.g. Radio4, Phys.org, Universe Today, and YouTube/logabalakarthikeyan.
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Black holes helped quenching star formation in the early Universe.
- Picked up by e.g. ScienMag.
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Hubble spots most distant single star ever seen, at a record distance of 28 billion lightyears
- Picked up by e.g. CNN, The Sun, New York Post, ABC 7, Astronomy, Phys.org, Smithsonian Magazine, Live Science, DR, videnskab.dk, Kristeligt Dagblad, and Jyllands-Posten.
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Student discovers link between global warming and the local unstability of weather
- Picked up by e.g. videnskab.dk, TV2, Berlingske, B.T., Jyllands-Posten, Phys.org, ScienceDaily, Environmental News Network, ScienMag, and forskning.no.
- Super telescope will peer nearly 14 billion years back in time (co-written with the UCPH Science news team)
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Hubble finds distant galaxies that ran out of fuel
- Picked up by e.g. ScienceReport, videnskab.dk, and Jyllands-Posten.
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Astronomers see the same supernova three times — and predict a fourth to appear in 16 years
- Picked up nationally and internationally by e.g. videnskab.dk, P1 Morgen, Politiken, DR Viden, Aktuel Naturvidenskab, Ekstra Bladet, A&G (Royal Astronomical Society), Xataka, and Daily Galaxy.
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Danish Student solves how the Universe is reflected near black holes
- Picked up nationally and internationally by e.g. videnskab.dk, Ingeniøren, Science Alert, Space & Planetary News, ScienMag, Space Daily, and Futurity
- Most read research news article on UCPH's website 2021 (link)
- Danish participation in over a third of the new James Webb Space Telescope’s initial observations
Other news stories
- Three missions left in ESA’s race for the next medium-class space mission
- A galaxy group in the early Universe
- Picked up by e.g. space.com, phys.org and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics.
- Astrophysicists unveil the unexpected symmetry of cosmic explosions
- Picked up by e.g. videnskab.dk.
- Early galaxy formation caught in the act with James Webb
- Record distant galaxy confirmed with James Webb
- A kilonova associated with a long gamma-ray burst
- Farthest galaxy candidate yet known discovered by James Webb
- Picked up by e.g. Phys.org
- Master student discovers a group of galaxies clustered together in the early Universe (co-written with Georgios Magdis)
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Astronomers discover a swarm of galaxies orbiting a hyper-luminous galaxy
- Picked up by e.g. Phys.org, Space.com, Universe Today, and Wikipedia (!).
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Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn
- A 15 minutes' read on James Webb's observations of galaxies so distant and so big that they seem to defy physics.
- Also available in a 2 minutes' overview: James Webb challenges cosmic dawn.
- Picked up by e.g. videnskab.dk, P1, and Radio4.
- First images from the James Webb Space Telescope — press conference at DAWN
- New analysis leads to a fundamentally different view of supermassive black holes (co-written with John Weaver)
- A novel way of investigating star-forming gas in the early Universe
- Reported record-distant explosion turns out to be probably just a piece of space junk
- ALMA Discovers Rotating Infant Galaxy with Help of Natural Cosmic Telescope
- Highest detail yet observations of distant galaxy
- Understanding galaxy evolution
- ALMA captures distant colliding galaxy dying out as it loses the ability to form stars
News on colleagues' grants, awards, and research
- Charlotte Mason receives the L'Oréal-UNESCO's For Women in Science Award
- Bitten Gullberg awarded the Villum Young Investigator grant
- Charlotte Mason awarded large grant from the Carlsberg Foundation
- Shuowen Jin receives the 2022 IOP China Top Cited Paper Award
- Darach Watson receives the ERC Synergy Grant
- Kasper Heintz receives €207,000 from the Villum Foundation for building a new binocular telescope
- Francesco Valentino appointed the “Best young Italian Researcher in Denmark”
- Francesca Rizzo is awarded the Otto Hahn Medal
- Lise Christensen receives grant from the Independent Research Fund Denmark
- Seiji Fujimoto awarded the prestigious NASA Hubble Fellowship
- Karina Caputi receives a large grant from the Dutch Research Council
- Claudia Lagos awarded the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Young Astronomer prize
- Kasper Heintz receives Carlsberg Reintegration Fellowship
- DAWNers among the world's highest cited scientists
- Shuowen Jin receives the 2021 IOP China Top Cited Paper Award
- Francesca Rizzo is awarded the Kippenhahn Prize
- Kasper Heintz is awarded 180 hours at the Very Large Telescope to study fast radio bursts
- Johan Fynbo receives DFF grant for finding quasars in a new way
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With James Webb back to the edge of time itself.
James Webb, its science, and its first results. -
How far is it to the most distant galaxy?
Contributed chapter to the Niels Bohr Institute's 100 years' anniversary book Lyset fra Bohr ("The light from Bohr"). -
Spiral galaxies
How do spiral galaxies get their beautiful arms? -
Galaxies
About the Niels Bohr Institute's research in galaxies, aimed at prospective students (in Danish). -
Black holes reflect the Universe
An explanation of my colleague's calculations of the spacetime warping near the surface of a black hole (in Danish). -
Understanding galaxy evolution
A slightly-more-complex-than-usual story about how astronomers learn about galaxies and their evolution (an English press release about this can be found here). -
How are galaxies formed?
Step-by-step galaxy formation. -
What is a galaxy?
…what are they made of, and which kinds are there? - The Big Bang — an eyewitness account.
What would you experience if you were present during the first 15 minutes after the creation of the Universe?- Originally in Danish, but translated to English and Norwegian.
- Awarded best Danish public outreach on Forskerzonen.
- The Beginning of the Universe (second author).
In addition to the published articles above I've created a small
encyclopedia for non-astronomers
with short introductions for laymen to some of the stuff that I spend my time on.
I also tweet regularly about astronomy: Follow @anisotropela
I regularly give talks on various astronomy-related topics to high school students, amateur astronomy associations, companies, and the general public. Even in prisons!
Some topics of the talks I give are:
- James Webb — the new space telescope
- Galaxies — the building blocks of the Universe
- Cosmology — then and now
- Lyman α — a window to the distant Universe
- The dark Universe (on dark matter, dark energy, and black holes)
- Stars — birth, life, and death
- Spectroscopy and astronomy
- My research
- Science communication
Do you have a question? Ask it using the form below/on the right.
Various events
- Panel debate about James Webb with science editor Lasse Foghsgaard at Politiken Festival.
- Organized a live-streaming of the James Webb Space Telescope in the Planetarium, for the public and the press (postponed a year due to corona, instead being about the latest results from James Webb).
- Inauguration of the Planetarium's new dome together with e.g. Anja C. Andersen, Holger Bech Nielsen and Pernille Rosendahl. Hosts: Peter Falktoft and Esben Bjerre.
- Co-quizmastering a science quiz for high-school students.
- Science Slam at the Planetarium. Emcee'd by Per Vers.
- Panel debate about science and religion with physicist Troels C. Petersen and religion-historian Mikael Rothstein and 200 pupils from Rysensteen High School.
Consultancy
- Helped illustrator Klavs Motlzen design an interactive stellar sky, found in the Baneby Park.
- Fact-checker / scientific consultant on Himlen set fra Jorden ("The sky from below") by Jakob A. Andersen.
- Consultant on DR's ultra:bit i forskernes fodspor; a course for secondary schoolers on exoplanets.
- Explained various equations on light and thermodynamics that were used in the TV2 Christmas calendar "Kometernes Jul".
Workshops
- Niels Bohr Institute theme day.
- Space seminar for teachers.
- Astronomy in primary school with talk and activities.
- Astronomy in kindergarten.
- Exhibition on the National Museeum of Denmark about Tycho Brahe, aimed mainly at secondary school and high-school students. Among other things, the students were to measure angular distances on this 3×5 m2 image of Cassiopeia, using a large, homemade sextant.
Posters & flyers
Supervising school pupils
- I occasionally help/guide/cheer on/supervise high school or secondary school students doing astronomy/physics projects.