Category Astronomy/Space

The earliest known galaxies in the universe. Some of these galaxies formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang. Credit: ESA/NASA

Soon after the Big Bang, the universe went completely dark. The intense, seminal event that created the cosmos churned up so much hot, thick gas that light was completely trapped. Much later – perhaps as many as one billion years after the Big Bang -the universe expanded, became more transparent, and eventually filled up with galaxies, planets, stars, and other objects that give off visible light. That’s the universe we know today. How it emerged from the cosmic dark ages to a clearer, light-filled state remains a mystery.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa offer a theory of how that happened...

KIPAC scientists have for the first time used artificial neural networks to analyze complex distortions in spacetime, called gravitational lenses, demonstrating that the method is 10 million times faster than traditional analyses. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Brain-mimicking ‘neural networks’ can revolutionize the way astrophysicists analyze their most complex data. Researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have for the first time shown that neural networks – a form of artificial intelligence — can accurately analyze the complex distortions in spacetime known as gravitational lenses 10 million times faster than traditional methods...

UConn chemistry professor Doug Adamson has found an inexpensive way to manufacture the pristine form of this substance, which is stronger than steel and thinner than a human hair. Credit: Peter Morenus/UConn Photo

A UConn chemist Professor Doug Adamson has patented a one-of-a-kind process for exfoliating graphene in its pure (unoxidized) form, as well as manufacturing innovative graphene nanocomposites that have potential uses in a variety of applications, including desalination of brackish water. If you think of graphite like a deck of cards, each individual card would be a sheet of graphene. Comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, graphene is a 2D crystal at least 100X stronger than steel...

SPHEREx could provide some important hints into the origin of the universe, improving our knowledge about its birth and evolution

NASA has recently chosen 6 proposed astrophysics mission for concept studies. Among them is the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer, or SPHEREx, which aims to unlock the mysteries of the universe by performing the first all-sky spectral survey. If selected for construction and launch, the survey provided by the SPHEREx spacecraft could provide crucial insights into the origin and evolution of galaxies, and could help scientists explore whether planets around other stars might harbor life.

“SPHEREx will produce the first infrared spectral survey of the entire sky...