universe

By Leah Crane The Sloan Digital Sky Survey used a 2.5-metre telescope in New Mexico to capture the biggest map of the universeSloan Digital Sky Survey A huge 3D map depicts 11 billion years of cosmic history and places the tightest constraints ever on our best model of the universe. Captured by the Sloan Digital Sky…

By Leah Crane Could tiny black holes explain dark matter?NASA/JPL-Caltech If black holes formed in the first seconds after the big bang, they may still be around in colossal clusters that are practically invisible. In the very early universe, everything was so dense that the radiation that filled the cosmos could have collapsed to create…

It is easy to regard the sun as humdrum, yet it contains elements blasted from the universe’s first stars as they died and is halfway through its 9-billion-year lifespan Space | Comment 15 July 2020 By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC YOU should never stare directly at the sun. This isn’t a euphemism of some kind –…

By Leah Crane The big bang kicked off the expansion of the universeNICOLLE R. FULLER / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The universe is constantly expanding, and that expansion is accelerating, but we aren’t sure exactly how quickly. Two sets of measurements to estimate the rate of expansion conflict with one another, which may be a sign…

By Leah Crane Spiral galaxies have revealed a clue about the early universeNASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team The early universe may have been spinning, leaving a trace still visible in the skies today. Lior Shamir at Kansas State University and his colleagues used three of the world’s most powerful observatories – the…