http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/big_bang/ Big Bang theory and the birth of the universe. Science articles on dark matter clumps birthing galaxies, the time before the Big Bang and more. Images. en-us Tue, 13 May 2008 07:05:01 EDT Tue, 13 May 2008 07:05:01 EDT 60 http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/logosmall.gif http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/big_bang/ For more science articles, visit ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080512191135.htm For the first time, astronomers have detected in the ultraviolet the carbon monoxide molecule in a galaxy located almost 11 billion light-years away, a feat that had remained elusive for 25 years. This detection allows them to obtain the most precise measurement of the cosmic temperature at such a remote epoch. Tue, 13 May 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080512191135.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506194033.htm ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has been used by a team of international astronomers to uncover part of the missing matter in the universe. Ten years ago, scientists predicted that about half of the missing 'ordinary' or normal matter made of atoms exists in the form of low-density gas, filling vast spaces between galaxies. But the low density of the gas hampered many attempts to detect it in the past. With XMM-Newton's high sensitivity, astronomers have discovered its hottest parts. Wed, 07 May 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506194033.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080429095054.htm Astronomers looking at the universe's distant past found nine young, unusually compact galaxies, each weighing in at 200 billion times the mass of the Sun. These young galaxies are the equivalent of a human baby that is 20 inches long, yet weighs 180 pounds. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080429095054.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080428140351.htm Some of the oldest objects in the Universe may still have a long way to go, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. These new results indicate that globular clusters might be surprisingly less mature in their development than previously thought. Globular clusters are incredibly dense bunches of up to millions of stars that are found in the outskirts of galaxies, including the Milky Way. They are among the oldest known objects in the Universe, with most estimates of their ages ranging from 9 to 13 billions of years old. Understanding the nature of globular clusters is very important as they are thought to contain some of the first stars to form in a galaxy. Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080428140351.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416141356.htm A new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows baby stars sprouting in the backwoods of a galaxy -- a relatively desolate region of space more than 100,000 light-years from the galaxy's bustling center. The striking image shows the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, also known simply as M83. Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416141356.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415143816.htm Gravitational radiation -- widely expected to provide "smoking gun" proof for a theory of the early universe known as "inflation" -- can be produced by another mechanism, according to physics researchers. Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415143816.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417102517.htm A 4.1-meter diameter primary mirror, a vital part of the world's newest and fastest survey telescope, VISTA has been delivered to its new mountaintop home at Cerro Paranal, Chile. Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417102517.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080411091744.htm Millions of clustered stars glisten like an iridescent opal in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called Omega Centauri, this sparkling orb of stars is like a miniature galaxy. It is the biggest and brightest of the more than 150 similar objects, called globular clusters, that orbit around the outside of our Milky Way galaxy. Stargazers at southern latitudes can spot the stellar gem with the naked eye in the constellation Centaurus. Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080411091744.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080404200325.htm An ambitious study of active and inactive galaxies has given new insights into the complex interaction between super-massive black holes at the heart of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and star formation in the surrounding galaxy. Astronomers studied the properties of light from 360,000 galaxies in the local Universe to understand the relationship between accreting black holes, the birth of stars in galaxy centres and the evolution of the galaxies as a whole. Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080404200325.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407091757.htm XMM-Newton has been surprised by a rare type of galaxy, from which it has detected a higher number of X-rays than thought possible. The observation gives new insight into the powerful processes shaping galaxies during their formation and evolution. Scientists working with XMM-Newton were looking into the furthest reaches of the universe, at celestial objects called quasars. These are vast cosmic engines that pump energy into their surroundings. It is thought an enormous black hole drives each quasar. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407091757.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080404201105.htm UK astronomers have produced the most sensitive infrared map of the distant Universe ever undertaken. Combining data over a period of three years, they have produced an image containing over 100,000 galaxies over an area four times the size of the full Moon. Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080404201105.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401160020.htm Using the most sensitive images ever obtained with the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope, astronomers have found convincing evidence that galaxies which look old early in the history of the Universe reside in enormous clouds of invisible dark matter and will eventually evolve into the most massive galaxies that exist in the present day. Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401160020.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403140918.htm Researchers have used graphene to measure an important and mysterious fundamental constant -- and glimpse the foundations of the universe. The universe and life on this planet are intimately controlled by several exact numbers; so-called fundamental or universal constants such as the speed of light and the electric charge of an electron. Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080403140918.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331190612.htm Something is pulling the universe apart. What is it, and where will it take us from here? Scientists are seeking answers to those questions with the newly-commissioned South Pole Telescope. Frigid and bone-dry, with six straight months of night each year, the South Pole is a forbidding place to live or work. But for largely the same reasons, it's one of the best spots on the planet for surveying the faint cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation left over from the Big Bang. Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331190612.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331122534.htm Deep in the bowels of the earth -- 100 meters below ground in Geneva, Switzerland -- lies a supermachine of 27 kilometers circumference that has been built to unlock the mysteries of the universe. 2,500 scientists from 37 countries were recruited to help design, test the supermachine that will provide a new perspective into what occurred at the time of the Big Bang. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331122534.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401152953.htm New measurements from some of the most distant galaxies bolster the evidence that the strongest burst of star formation in the history of the Universe occurred about two billion years after the Big Bang. Astronomers have found evidence for a dramatic surge in star birth in a newly discovered population of massive galaxies in the early Universe. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401152953.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331122543.htm Astronomers have discovered a cluster of galaxies in a very early stage of formation that is 11.4 billion light years from Earth -- the farthest of its kind ever to be detected. These galaxies are so distant that the universe was in its infancy when their light was emitted. Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331122543.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328094140.htm A new physics discovery explores why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. The paper reveals that investigation into the process of B-meson decays has given insight into why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328094140.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080321084612.htm Final results from the University of Utah's High Resolution Fly's Eye cosmic ray observatory show that the most energetic particles in the universe rarely reach Earth at full strength because they come from great distances, so most of them collide with radiation left over from the birth of the universe. The findings confirm a 42-year-old prediction -- known as the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin "cutoff," "limit" or "suppression" -- about ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080321084612.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080321093110.htm A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye. "This burst was a whopper," said the Swift principal investigator "It blows away every gamma ray burst we've seen so far." Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080321093110.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311124548.htm Scientists and engineers will study how to design a telescope on the moon for peering into the last unexplored epoch in the universe's history. There was an interval, now called the "Dark Ages," in which the Universe was unlit by any star. Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311124548.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080310151949.htm Researchers are exploring the possibility of an extra dimension -- an imperceptibly small dimension, about one billionth of a nanometer. Researchers say: "This extra dimension would be curled up, in a state similar to that of the entire universe at the time of the Big Bang." Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080310151949.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307095219.htm On 12th June, a space-bound advertisement will be broadcast from a 500MHz Ultra High Frequency Radar from the EISCAT Space Centre in Svalbard, which lies in the Arctic Ocean about midway between northern Norway and the North Pole. The transmission is being directed at a solar system just 42 light years away from Earth with planets that orbit its star '47 Ursae Majoris' (UMa). 47 UMa is located in the Great Bear Constellation (also known as "The Plough") - easily identifiable to even the most amateur stargazer. It is very similar to our Sun and is believed to host a habitable zone that could potentially harbour small terrestrial planets and support life as we know it. Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307095219.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307182745.htm There is new evidence that a sea of cosmic neutrinos permeates the universe, clear evidence the first stars took more than a half-billion years to create a cosmic fog, and tight new constraints on the burst of expansion in the universe's first trillionth of a second, all from five years of data collected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080307182745.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228100731.htm Physicists have built the world's most sensitive WIMP detectors in an attempt to catch some of those mysterious particles of dark matter. Running a clearn-room laboratory a half-mile underground in an old iron ore mine raises challenges of its own. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080228100731.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225101110.htm Scientists of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment have announced that they have set the world's best constraints on the properties of dark matter candidates. WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, are leading candidates for the building blocks of dark matter, which accounts for 85 percent of the entire mass of the universe. Hundreds of billions of WIMPs may have passed through your body as you read these sentences. Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225101110.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221095420.htm A giant camera known as SCUBA-2 is being transported to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Rather than detecting visible light, SCUBA-2 will detect submillimeter radiation, which is sensitive to the heat emitted by extremely cold dust in the Universe. This material is associated with the mysterious earliest phases of the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, until now largely undetectable. Typically the dust is at temperatures of about -200 Celsius and so detecting its extremely weak emissions presents a huge technological challenge. Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221095420.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080218142721.htm An international project to make the world's most productive ground-based telescope 10 times more capable has reached its halfway mark and is on schedule to provide astronomers with an extremely powerful new tool for exploring the Universe. The National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope now has half of its giant, 230-ton dish antennas converted to use new, state-of-the-art digital electronics to replace analog equipment that has served since the facility's construction during the 1970s. Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080218142721.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080216114853.htm Space scientists report on new discoveries about gamma ray bursts obtained from the Swift satellite and coordinated observations from a global network of ground based telescopes. Gamma-ray bursts are short-lived events, lasting between a few milliseconds to a few minutes. The brightest of them emit more energy in a few seconds than our Sun will emit in its whole 10 billion year lifetime. Gamma ray bursts are occurring several times daily somewhere in the universe, fortunately at huge distances from our solar system. These fleeting explosions are precursors to the births of black holes. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080216114853.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221085019.htm ESA's Integral has made the first unambiguous discovery of high-energy X-rays coming from a rare massive star at our cosmic doorstep, Eta Carinae. It is one of the most violent places in the galaxy, producing vast winds of electrically-charged particles colliding at speeds of thousands of kilometers per second. The only astronomical object that emits gamma-rays and is observable by the naked eye, Eta Carinae is monstrously large, so large that astronomers call it a hypergiant. It contains between 100--150 times the mass of the Sun and glows more brightly than four million Suns put together. Astronomers know that it is not a single star, but a binary, with a second massive star orbiting the first. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221085019.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221121109.htm Astronomer have discovered the largest structures of dark matter ever seen. Measuring 270 million light-years across, these dark matter structures criss-cross the night sky, each spanning an area that is eight times larger than the full moon. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080221121109.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219155653.htm Astronomers have compiled a large catalogue of gravitational lenses in the distant universe. The catalogue contains a staggering 67 new gravitationally lensed images found around massive elliptical and lenticular-shaped galaxies. This sample demonstrates the rich diversity of strong gravitational lenses. If this sample is representative, there would be nearly half a million similar gravitational lenses in total over the whole sky. Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219155653.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080215151212.htm In the thin, dry air of northern Chile's Atacama Desert, at an altitude of 16,500 feet, an amazing new telescope system is taking shape, on schedule to provide the world's astronomers with unprecedented views of the origins of stars, galaxies, and planets. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array will open an entirely new "window" on the Universe, allowing scientists to unravel longstanding and important astronomical mysteries. Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080215151212.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208131143.htm Scientists hope that a new supercomputer may help them identify the sound of a celestial black hole. Gravitational waves are produced by violent events in the distant universe, such as the collision of black holes or explosions of supernovas. The waves radiate across the universe at the speed of light. While Albert Einstein predicted the existence of these waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity, it has taken decades to develop the technology to detect them. Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208131143.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080213133320.htm Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have reported the possible detection of a binary star system that was later destroyed in a supernova explosion. The new method they used provides great future promise for finding the detailed origin of these important cosmic events. The supernova, known as SN 2007on, was identified as a Type Ia supernova. Astronomers generally agree that Type Ia supernovas are produced by the explosion of a white dwarf star in a binary star system. However, the exact configuration and trigger for the explosion is unclear. Is the explosion caused by a collision between two white dwarfs, or because a white dwarf became unstable by pulling too much material off a companion star? Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080213133320.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208095745.htm ESA's test center is buzzing with activity and anticipation as it welcomes its latest guest. The gigantic telescope of ESA's space-based infrared observatory, Herschel, is being prepared to be assembled with its spacecraft in the next few weeks. Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208095745.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080212095443.htm The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with a boost from a natural "zoom lens," has found the strongest evidence so far for a galaxy with a redshift significantly above 7. It is likely to be one of the youngest and brightest galaxies ever seen right after the cosmic "dark ages," just 700 million years after the beginning of our universe (redshift ~7.6). Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080212095443.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080206101401.htm Imagine trying to catch up to something moving close to the speed of light - the fastest anything can move -- and sending ahead information in time to make mid-path flight corrections. Impossible? Not quite. Physicists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, a particle accelerator, have achieved this tricky task -- and the results may aid in the quest to understand the inner workings of the early universe. Already, RHIC scientists have learned that mere microseconds after the Big Bang, the universe was more interesting than imagined - a nearly "perfect" liquid with virtually no viscosity and strong interactions among its constituents. Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080206101401.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080201102237.htm Astronomers will be studying icy cosmic dust millions of light years away -- using the biggest space telescope ever built. As well as being able to see star-forming regions very nearby in our own galaxy, it will be able to see galaxies forming when the universe was in its infancy, more than ten billion years ago. Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080201102237.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131161812.htm When the world's most powerful particle accelerator starts up later this year, exotic new particles may offer a glimpse of the existence and shapes of extra dimensions. String theory, which describes the fundamental particles of the universe as tiny vibrating strings of energy, suggests the existence of six or seven unseen spatial dimensions in addition to the time and three space dimensions that we normally see. Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131161812.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080204125042.htm For the first time ever, NASA will beam a song -- The Beatles' "Across the Universe" -- directly into deep space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4. The transmission over NASA's Deep Space Network will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding and the group's beginnings. Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080204125042.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128113207.htm Ancient light absorbed by neutral hydrogen atoms could be used to test certain predictions of string theory, say cosmologists. Making the measurements, however, would require a gigantic array of radio telescopes to be built on Earth, in space or on the moon. Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128113207.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131094056.htm Astronomers believe they can "simplify the dark side of the universe" by shedding new light on two of its mysterious constituents. Only 4% of the universe is made of known material - the other 96% is traditionally labeled into two sectors, dark matter and dark energy. "Both dark matter and dark energy could be two faces of the same coin," according to an astrophysicist. Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131094056.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130130650.htm Astronomers have used ESO's Very Large Telescope to measure the distribution and motions of thousands of galaxies in the distant universe. This opens fascinating perspectives to better understand what drives the acceleration of the cosmic expansion and sheds new light on the mysterious dark energy that is thought to permeate the universe. Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130130650.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080120182315.htm Astronomers have uncovered hints that there may be cosmic strings - lines of pure mass-energy - stretching across the entire Universe. Cosmic strings are predicted by high energy physics theories, including superstring theory. This is based on the idea that particles are not just little points, but tiny vibrating bits of string Cosmic strings are predicted to have extraordinary amounts of mass - perhaps as much as the mass of the Sun - packed into each meter of a tube whose width is less a billion billionth of the size of an atom. Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080120182315.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114162455.htm Neutron stars can be considerably more massive than previously believed, and it is more difficult to form black holes, according to new research. In the cosmic continuum of dead, remnant stars, the astronomers have increased the mass limit for when neutron stars turn into black holes. Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114162455.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080112154654.htm Astronomers have produced a scientific gold mine of detailed, high-quality images of nearby galaxies that is yielding important new insights into many aspects of galaxies, including their complex structures, how they form stars, the motions of gas in the galaxies, the relationship of "normal" matter to unseen "dark matter," and many others. Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080112154654.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102323.htm For the first time astronomers are able to see indirect evidence of dark matter and how this invisible force impacts on the crowded and violent lives of galaxies. They have produced the highest resolution map of dark matter ever captured. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the Universe's mass. Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080110102323.htm