Missing Baryons Found in Far-Out Reaches of Galactic Halos
Berkeley Lab physicists play key role in studies that solve a cosmological mystery
March 16, 2021
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A new study has found that a share of particles that has been challenging to locate is most likely sprinkled across the distant bounds of galaxy halos. The study found some of these particles of baryonic matter are located up to 6 million light-years from their galactic centers. This color-rendered image shows the halo of the Andromeda galaxy, which is the Milky Way’s largest galactic neighbor. (Credit: NASA)
By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Researchers have channeled the universe’s earliest light – a relic of the universe’s formation known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – to solve a missing-matter mystery and learn new things about galaxy formation. Their work could also help us to better understand dark energy and test Einstein’s theory of general relativity by providing new details about the rate at
Missing baryons found in far-out reaches of galactic halos eurekalert.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eurekalert.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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ITHACA, N.Y. - Using light from the Big Bang, an international team led by Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Energy s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has begun to unveil the material which fuels galaxy formation. There is uncertainty on the formation of stars within galaxies that theoretical models are unable to predict, said lead author Stefania Amodeo, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher in astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, who now conducts research at the Observatory of Strasbourg, France. With this work, we are providing tests for galaxy formation models to comprehend galaxy and star formation.
Ancient light illuminates matter that fuels galaxy formation cornell.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cornell.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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New View of Nature’s Oldest Light Suggest Universe Is 13.77 Billion Years Old
From an observatory high above Chile’s Atacama Desert, astronomers have taken a new look at the oldest light in the universe.
Their observations, plus a bit of cosmic geometry, suggest that the universe is 13.77 billion years old – give or take 40 million years. A Cornell researcher co-authored one of two papers about the findings, which add a fresh twist to an ongoing debate in the astrophysics community.
The new estimate, using data gathered at the National Science Foundation’s Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), matches the one provided by the standard model of the universe, as well as measurements of the same light made by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, which measured remnants of the Big Bang from 2009 to ’13.