universe

Latest about universe

X-ray (top) and optical pseudo-color (below) images of three low-mass galaxy clusters studied by the eROSITA instrument. The highest-redshift cluster comes from a time when the universe was approximately 10 billion years younger than it is today. The cluster galaxies in that case are clearly much redder than the galaxies in the other two clusters.

Mysterious dark energy is spread evenly across the cosmos

By Robert Lea published

Dark energy, the mysterious force apparently driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, is spread uniformly across space and time, new observations of massive galaxy clusters suggest.

Astronomy
Artist's impression of a protocluster of galaxies forming in the early universe.

Giant proto-galaxy in early universe devours recycled material to birth new stars

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

A faraway proto-galaxy has been observed feeding on recycled material, shedding more light on how galaxies sustain star birth across eons.

Galaxies
This artist’s impression shows a distant gas cloud that contains different chemical elements, illustrated here with schematic representations of various atoms.

Guts of the universe's 1st stars found in distant gas clouds

By Robert Lea published

Astronomers have found the fingerprints of material dispersed by the supernova deaths of the universe's first stars in distant gas clouds.

Stars
The James Webb Space Telescope deep field image showing some of the earliest and most distant galaxies ever seen.

How do we know how far away and early in the universe galaxies are?

By Robert Lea published

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted galaxies further away in the universe than any other instrument before. How can we be sure these early galaxies aren't closer and more recent?

Galaxies
This image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field was taken by the Near-Infrared Camera on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb image observes the field at depths comparable to Hubble – revealing galaxies of similar faintness – in just one-tenth as much observing time.

James Webb Space Telescope eyes Hubble Ultra Deep Field in stunning detail (photo)

By Sharmila Kuthunur published

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope looked at the same distant patch of sky that Hubble did, revealing yet more detail in the famous Ultra Deep Field.

James Webb Space Telescope
The somewhat amorphous spiral galaxy UGC 2890 appears side-on in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, with bright foreground stars studding the image. This galaxy, which lies around 30 million light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis, hosted a powerful supernova explosion that astronomers observed in 2009.

How are Hubble Space Telescope images made?

By Robert Lea published

Reference How does the Hubble Space Telescope view the universe, and how are its images translated to a form we can understand?

Reference
An image of the Cepheid variable star RS Puppis.

'Hubble trouble' could deepen with new measurement of the universe's expansion

By Robert Lea published

Cosmologists have a problem: Their measurements of the rate of expansion of the universe don't agree. And a new, highly accurate measurement of variable stars could deepen this 'Hubble trouble.'

Hubble Space Telescope
A gravitational lens magnifies the distant Cosmic Seahorse galaxy in this James Webb Space Telescope image released on March 28, 2023.

James Webb Space Telescope spots the Cosmic Seahorse through a gravitational lens (photo)

By Stefanie Waldek published

The Cosmic Seahorse galaxy is seen through a gravitational lens in a newly released image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

James Webb Space Telescope
Artist's illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope.

James Webb Space Telescope spies most ancient galaxies ever observed

By Robert Lea published

The James Webb Space Telescope's ability to study the early universe has been solidified by the confirmation that it has imaged four galaxies as they were just 350 million years after the Big Bang.

James Webb Space Telescope
The illustration shows a pair of neutron stars orbiting each other very closely, sending gravitational waves pulsing along the skin of space-time.

What are gravitational waves?

By Robert Lea last updated

Reference Gravitational waves are tiny ripples in the fabric of time and space that are created by some of the universe's most powerful events such as colliding black holes.

Reference
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