http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A team of astronomers has used a massive galaxy cluster as a cosmic magnifying lens to study the nature of dark energy for the first time. When combined with existing techniques, their results significantly improve current measurements of the mass and energy content of the universe. The findings appear in the August 20 issue of the journal Science. http://phys.org/news201427857.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:00:06 EST news201427857 (PhysOrg.com) -- By suggesting that mass, time, and length can be converted into one another as the universe evolves, Wun-Yi Shu has proposed a new class of cosmological models that may fit observations of the universe better than the current big bang model. What this means specifically is that the new models might explain the increasing acceleration of the universe without relying on a cosmological constant such as dark energy, as well as solve or eliminate other cosmological dilemmas such as the flatness problem and the horizon problem. http://phys.org/news199591806.html Physics Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:42:20 EST news199591806 Pioneering observations with the National Science Foundation's giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have given astronomers a new tool for mapping large cosmic structures. The new tool promises to provide valuable clues about the nature of the mysterious "dark energy" believed to constitute nearly three-fourths of the mass and energy of the Universe. http://phys.org/news198934384.html Space & Earth Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:00:14 EST news198934384 (PhysOrg.com) -- Through observations of massive galaxy clusters, scientists have made the most precise measurements to date of the effects of dark energy and gravity on cosmological scales. This work is an important step toward understanding why the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Something is pushing our universe apart, faster and faster, with each passing moment, and future work using similar methods should determine whether that something is dark energy or a change in the way gravity works on cosmological scales. http://phys.org/news198431059.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:20:02 EST news198431059 (PhysOrg.com) -- When a star explodes as a supernova, it shines so brightly that it can be seen from millions of light-years away. One particular supernova variety - Type Ia - brightens and dims so predictably that astronomers use them to measure the universe's expansion. The resulting discovery of dark energy and the accelerating universe rewrote our understanding of the cosmos. Yet the origin of these supernovae, which have proved so useful, remains unknown. http://phys.org/news198169743.html Space & Earth Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:09:30 EST news198169743 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research by astronomers in the Physics Department at Durham University suggests that the conventional wisdom about the content of the Universe may be wrong. Graduate student Utane Sawangwit and Professor Tom Shanks looked at observations from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite to study the remnant heat from the Big Bang. The two scientists find evidence that the errors in its data may be much larger than previously thought, which in turn makes the standard model of the Universe open to question. http://phys.org/news195720060.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:41:24 EST news195720060 Advancing into the next frontier in astrophysics and cosmology depends on our ability to detect the presence of a particular type of wave in space, a primordial gravitational wave. Much like ripples moving across a pond, these waves stretch the fabric of space itself as they pass by. If detected, these weak and elusive waves could provide an unprecedented view of the earliest moments of our universe. In an article appearing in the May 21 issue of Science, Arizona State University theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss and researchers from the University of Chicago and Fermi national Laboratory explore the most likely detection method of these waves, with the examination of cosmic microwave radiation (CMB) standing out as the favored method. http://phys.org/news193581591.html Physics Thu, 20 May 2010 14:00:01 EST news193581591 The international Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP), based at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has announced the Union2 compilation of hundreds of Type Ia supernovae, the largest collection ever of high-quality data from numerous surveys. Analysis of the new compilation significantly narrows the possible values that dark energy might take, but not enough to decide among fundamentally different theories of its nature. http://phys.org/news191074620.html Space & Earth Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:50:01 EST news191074620 On 30 and 31 March a strategic international workshop on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will seek to identify the major economical and societal benefits of large-scale scientific research infrastructure investments. http://phys.org/news189162984.html Space & Earth Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:30:01 EST news189162984 (PhysOrg.com) -- A group of astronomers, led by Tim Schrabback of the Leiden Observatory, conducted an intensive study of over 446 000 galaxies within the COSMOS field, the result of the largest survey ever conducted with Hubble. In making the COSMOS survey, Hubble photographed 575 slightly overlapping views of the same part of the Universe using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) onboard Hubble. It took nearly 1000 hours of observations. http://phys.org/news188725253.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:42:01 EST news188725253 Operators of the world's largest atom smasher on Friday ramped up their massive machine to three times the energy ever previously achieved, in the run-up to experiments probing the secrets of the universe. http://phys.org/news188204873.html Physics Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:11:33 EST news188204873 It will be on board in 2012, when a Soyus-2 rocket carries an X-ray telescope into space to decode the nature of the universe's dark energy: an X-ray detector developed by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. Its challenging task is to detect the weak X-rays from celestial bodies, without being disturbed by the visible and UV light from billions of stars. http://phys.org/news187967250.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:07:55 EST news187967250 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team led by Yale University has, for the first time, measured the mass of a type of supernova thought to belong to a unique subclass and confirmed that it surpasses what was believed to be an upper mass limit. Their findings, which appear online and will be published in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal, could affect the way cosmologists measure the expansion of the universe. http://phys.org/news187896206.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:23:43 EST news187896206 (PhysOrg.com) -- Perched on a peak high in the Chilean Andes, 2200 meters above sea level, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory has an enviable view of the night sky. In 2011, the Dark Energy Survey collaboration will install the largest digital camera ever built inside the Cerro Tololo dome to gaze deep into the universe. And sitting nearby, gazing at something a little closer to earth, will be the SLAC-built Radiometric All Sky Infrared Camera, or RASICAM. http://phys.org/news187556545.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:30:01 EST news187556545 Scientists have restarted the world's most powerful atom-smasher overnight, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Sunday, as they launch a new bid to uncover the secrets of the universe. http://phys.org/news186578000.html Physics Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:14:14 EST news186578000 Dark matter, for more than 70 years as mysterious and unknowable a subject to science as the legendary island of Atlantis has been to history, is bringing 140 scientists from the U.S., Europe and Asia to the Marriott Hotel in Marina del Rey for the ninth UCLA Symposium on Sources and Detection of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe. The three-day conference runs through Friday, Feb. 26. http://phys.org/news186338406.html Physics Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:45:52 EST news186338406 Dark energy, habitable planets around other stars, and the mysterious nature of our own Sun, have been chosen by ESA as candidates for two medium-class missions to be launched no earlier than 2017. http://phys.org/news185802352.html Space & Earth Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:10:01 EST news185802352 With its successful test run at the end of 2009, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, seized the world record for the highest-energy particle collisions created by mankind. We can now reflect on the next questions: What will it discover, and why should we care? http://phys.org/news182111435.html Physics Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:31:22 EST news182111435 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers, including a University of Alabama researcher, have detected effects of "dark energy" within the Local Group of galaxies containing our own Milky Way Galaxy. http://phys.org/news182017702.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:29:55 EST news182017702 (PhysOrg.com) -- Australian astronomers have released the first set of data from the first project to look at the effects of "dark energy" halfway back in the Universe's lifetime. http://phys.org/news179508040.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:21:06 EST news179508040 A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find. http://phys.org/news177874211.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:05 EST news177874211 (PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova," says Patrick Woudt, from the University of Cape Town and lead author of the paper reporting the results. "As these supernovae play a crucial role in showing that the Universe's expansion is currently accelerating, pushed by a mysterious dark energy, it is rather embarrassing." http://phys.org/news177676554.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:36:27 EST news177676554 It's the biggest problem in physics: the matter we can see in the universe accounts for just five per cent of the observed gravity that holds galaxies together. http://phys.org/news177230113.html Physics Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:35:57 EST news177230113 A detailed picture of the seeds of structures in the universe has been unveiled by an international team co-led by a Cardiff University scientist. http://phys.org/news176389334.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:02:40 EST news176389334 Understanding dark energy is the number one issue in explaining the universe, according to Salman Habib, of the Laboratory's Nuclear and Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology group. http://phys.org/news175787311.html Physics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:01 EST news175787311 The world's fastest supercomputer, Roadrunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory has completed its initial "shakedown" phase doing accelerated petascale computer modeling and simulations of a variety of unclassified, fundamental science projects. http://phys.org/news175781501.html Electronics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:13:49 EST news175781501 (PhysOrg.com) -- The distant past of the universe is moving closer. Astronomers are using special spectrographs to investigate galaxies in the depths of the universe as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. The instruments are very sensitive to infrared light and can even detect very distant galaxies whose light is shifted towards the long-wavelength, red region of the spectrum as a result of the cosmic expansion. The astrophysicists hope that the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) will record the spectra of 1.4 million galaxies and 160,000 quasars by 2014. http://phys.org/news174669985.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:40:01 EST news174669985 BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, is the most ambitious attempt yet to map the expansion history of the Universe using the technique known as baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO). A part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), BOSS achieved "first light" on the night of September 14-15, when it acquired data with an upgraded spectrographic system across the entire focal plane of the Sloan Foundation 2.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. http://phys.org/news173626603.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:50:01 EST news173626603 Among the most astounding, unexpected, and important achievements of the past century (or even more) have been the discoveries of dark matter and dark energy, collectively dubbed the "dark sector." http://phys.org/news171640779.html Physics Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:00:37 EST news171640779 (PhysOrg.com) -- The stellar explosions known as type 1a supernovae have long been used as "standard candles," their uniform brightness giving astronomers a way to measure cosmic distances and the expansion of the universe. But a new study published this week in Nature reveals sources of variability in type 1a supernovae that will have to be taken into account if astronomers are to use them for more precise measurements in the future. http://phys.org/news169303137.html Space & Earth Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:10:02 EST news169303137