New work agrees with older research suggesting the oldest light in the universe – from the most distant galaxy yet known – started its journey toward us 13.77 billion years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/a-new-look-at-the-universes-oldest-light…
Tag: cosmic microwave background
The uncertainties in measuring cosmic expansion
Ninety years after Edwin Hubble discovered the systematic motions of galaxies and George Lemaitre explained them as cosmic expansion from a point using Einstein’s equations of relativity, observational cosmology today is facing a challenge. Values deduced from the two primary methodologies—the properties of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR)—disagree with each other at roughly the ten percent level, yet…
To Explain Away Dark Matter, Gravity Would Have To Be Really Weird
To discard the theory of dark matter, “you’ll need to replace it with something even more bizarre: a force of gravity that, at some distances, pulls massive objects together and, at other distances, pushes them apart.” That’s how Science magazine describes a new study, adding that “The analysis underscores how hard it is to explain away dark matter” — even though…
Scientists probe dark matter in a virtual universe
The new work reveals dark matter haloes as active regions of the sky, teeming with not only galaxies, but also radiation-emitting collisions that could make it possible to find dark matter haloes in the real sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/supercomputer-study-zoom-in-dark-matter-haloes…
Lead lab selected for next-generation cosmic microwave background experiment
The largest collaborative undertaking yet to explore the relic light emitted by the infant universe has taken a step forward with the U.S. Department of Energy’s selection of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to lead the partnership of national labs, universities, and other institutions that are joined in the effort to carry out the DOE roles and responsibilities. This next-generation…
New view of old light adds twist to debate over universe’s age
Observations of the cosmic microwave background by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile suggest that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-view-old-light-twist-debate-universes-age…
What is the Big Bang?
In the view of modern cosmologists, the Big Bang is the event that marked the birth of our universe. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/definition-what-is-the-big-bang…
Has mystery of universe’s missing matter been solved?
Cosmologists have only been able to find half the matter that should exist in the universe. With the discovery of a new astronomical phenomenon and new telescopes, these researchers say they’ve just found the rest. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/cosmic-bursts-unveil-universe-missing-matter-mystery…
BECEP array installed at South Pole
Professor Clem Pryke and his group are on their way back to Minnesota from the South Pole in Antarctica after completing installation of the new BICEP Array Telescope. Over the next few years this specialized radio telescope will study the Cosmic Microwave Background—an afterglow from the Big Bang—looking for the imprint of gravitational waves from the beginning of time. The project,…
The cosmic confusion of the microwave background
Roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago, matter (mostly hydrogen) cooled enough for neutral atoms to form, and light was able to traverse space freely. That light, the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), comes to us from every direction in the sky, uniform except for faint ripples and bumps at brightness levels of only a few…