Cosmology is a research area in astrophysics that investigates the large-scale properties, origin, composition, and dynamical evolution of the Universe as a whole. It integrates general relativity, quantum field theory, and observational astronomy to construct and test models such as the ΛCDM paradigm, characterized by dark energy, cold dark matter, and baryonic matter. Cosmology addresses the expansion history, cosmic microwave background anisotropies, structure formation, and primordial nucleosynthesis, using data from galaxy surveys, gravitational lensing, supernovae, and cosmic background experiments to constrain fundamental parameters and probe physics at energy scales inaccessible to terrestrial laboratories.
Physicists have long grappled with the question of why the universe was able to support the evolution of intelligent life. The values of the many forces and particles, represented by some 30 so-called fundamental constants, ...
Astrobiology
Nov 20, 2024
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Gravity has shaped our cosmos. Its attractive influence turned tiny differences in the amount of matter present in the early universe into the sprawling strands of galaxies we see today. A new study using data from the Dark ...
Astronomy
Nov 19, 2024
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Recent research by a student-faculty team at Colgate University unlocks new clues that could radically change the world's understanding of the origin of dark matter.
Astronomy
Nov 18, 2024
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Roughly 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled just enough to allow photons to escape from the primordial cosmological soup. Over the next 14 billion years, these ancient photons—the universe's first light—continued ...
Astronomy
Nov 14, 2024
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Why is the expansion of our universe accelerating? Twenty-five years after its discovery, this phenomenon remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. Solving it involves testing the fundamental laws of physics, including ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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On a mountain in northern Chile, scientists are carefully assembling the intricate components of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of the most advanced astronomical facilities in history. Equipped with an innovative ...
Astronomy
Nov 1, 2024
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How did everything begin? It's a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed in on an answer: the Big Bang.
Astronomy
Oct 31, 2024
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We live in a golden age for learning about the universe. Our most powerful telescopes have revealed that the cosmos is surprisingly simple on the largest visible scales. Likewise, our most powerful "microscope," the Large ...
Astronomy
Oct 24, 2024
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Just like we use photos to reflect on memories of our past, astrophysicists want to use images of far-off galaxies to understand what the universe was like in its juvenile years. But current imaging technology can only reach ...
Astronomy
Oct 22, 2024
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A team of physicists from the universities of Amsterdam, Princeton and Oxford have shown that extremely light particles known as axions may occur in large clouds around neutron stars. These axions could form an explanation ...
Astronomy
Oct 18, 2024
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