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Cosmologists Search for Gravity Waves to Prove Inflation Theory

[/caption] During the next decade, cosmologists will attempt to observe the first moments of the Universe, hoping to prove a popular theory. They’ll be searching for extremely weak gravity waves to measure primordial light, looking for convincing evidence for the Cosmic Inflation Theory, which proposes that a random, microscopic density fluctuation in the fabric of …

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Searching for Gravity Waves

When he developed his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein predicted that the motion of large masses should create ripples in spacetime called gravity waves. Now 100 years after his theory, a precise instrument is being prepared that should be able to find out if he was right or not. A joint ESA/NASA mission called LISA (Laser Interferometric Space Antenna) will launch in 2012. It will consist of three spacecraft flying 5 million km apart, which measure their distances from each other precisely. LISA should be able to detect black holes and neutron stars as well as echos from the Big Bang.

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Missing Link Between the Big Bang and Modern Galaxies

An international team of astronomers think they’ve found the missing link between modern galaxies like our own Milky Way to the Big Bang. The team spent 10 years mapping out the distribution of 220,000 galaxies measured as part of an extensive survey of galaxy position and motion. Shortly after the Big Bang, the Universe contained slight irregularities, created by subatomic processes and sound waves moving through the superhot afterglow. These irregularities were amplified by gravity, eventually pulling material into the first stars and galaxies.

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Biggest Collision in the Universe

An international team of scientists have discovered one of the most powerful events since the Big Bang: a collision between two galaxy clusters, which is smashing millions of stars into each other. The galaxy clusters are colliding like hurricanes, tossing individual galaxies out into interstellar space, and creating shockwaves more than 100-million degrees hot. Although the cluster, Abell 754, has been known for a long time, the astronomers used the ESA’s XMM-Newton X-Ray Observatory to trace back the interactions and collisions with great detail, and get a much deeper understanding about how the Universe’s largest structures are still forming.

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Roman Space Telescope Will Be Hunting For Primordial Black Holes

When astrophysicists observe the cosmos, they see different types of black holes. They range from gargantuan supermassive black holes with billions of solar masses to difficult-to-find intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) all the way down to smaller stellar-mass black holes. But there may be another class of these objects: primordial black holes (PBHs) that formed in …

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A New Map Shows the Universe’s Dark Energy May Be Evolving

At the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, an instrument with 5,000 tiny robotic eyes scans the night sky. Every 20 minutes, the instrument and the telescope it’s attached to observe a new set of 5,000 galaxies. The instrument is called DESI—Dark Energy Survey Instrument—and once it’s completed its five-year mission, it’ll create the largest …

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This New Map of 1.3 Million Quasars Is A Powerful Tool

Quasars are the brightest objects in the Universe. The most powerful ones are thousands of times more luminous than entire galaxies. They’re the visible part of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of a galaxy. The intense light comes from gas drawn toward the black hole, emitting light across several wavelengths as it …

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