Topic: Galaxies & Cosmology
Dark Energy Search Gets Dynamic

Dark Energy Search Gets Dynamic

by | Apr 6, 2025 |

At the beginning of our last episode, I mentioned that we’d just learned that new work by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, had provided hints that our universe has a changing density of dark energy, but I needed time to look over the research. Well, I’ve looked, and the news is kind of cool, especially if you like mysteries. As the story goes, back in 1998 two different supernovae research teams did a fit to their brightness versus velocity data and found the expansion rate of our universe, which is the source of that measured velocity, appears to be growing over time. This...

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Euclid Releases First Science Images

Euclid Releases First Science Images

by | Jun 18, 2024 |

While the 33 year old Hubble struggles, the not yet 1 year old Euclid space telescope has released its first science images. Euclid is a 1.2 m telescope with a wide-angle camera that is designed to survey galaxy shapes and study dark matter and dark energy. It is...

Hubble Down to One Gyro

Hubble Down to One Gyro

by | Jun 17, 2024 | ,

In a June 4 telecon with the press, NASA shared that due to recent issues, they have made the decision to operate HST in single gyro mode. This isn’t expected to have any impact on the quality of individual science images, however Hubble will need significantly more...

Hubble Resolves star formation

Hubble Resolves star formation

by | Jun 4, 2024 |

Image credit: NASA / ESA One of the things I personally enjoy most about working in astronomy is the way yesterday’s empty star fields and faint smudges resolve into spectacular vistas and amazing nebulae as we build better telescopes and find the time to point them...

JWST Echoes the Hubble Tension

JWST Echoes the Hubble Tension

by | Apr 10, 2024 |

Comparison of Hubble and Webb views of a Cepheid variable star. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Riess (JHU/STScI) Understanding our universe isn’t a straightforward process. For every theory that appears to be beautifully proven out by data, there is another theory...

Gaia Watches the Universe Form

Gaia Watches the Universe Form

by | Apr 10, 2024 |

Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Simons Foundation; K. Storey-Fisher et al. 2024 In trying to understand our universe, theorists can build models that describe how the universe formed as a mostly, but not completely, smooth distribution of matter and energy...