Interstellar dust extinction as a research area investigates the wavelength-dependent attenuation of starlight and other electromagnetic radiation by dust grains in the interstellar medium, with emphasis on quantifying extinction curves, their spatial variation, and their dependence on dust composition, size distribution, and geometry. This field integrates observations from UV to infrared bands with radiative transfer modeling to infer dust grain properties, constrain dust evolution processes, and correct astronomical measurements for obscuration effects. It also examines the role of extinction in shaping observed galaxy spectra, star-formation indicators, and the interpretation of cosmological surveys, often requiring cross-calibration with emission and scattering diagnostics.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new red galaxy at a redshift of approximately 11.45. The newfound galaxy, which received designation EGS-z11-R0, turns out to be the most distant ...
A team of 48 astronomers from 14 countries, led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has discovered a population of dusty, star-forming galaxies at the far edges of the universe that formed only a billion years after ...
Astronomy
Feb 17, 2026
4
253
The standard cosmological model (present-day version of "Big Bang," called Lambda-CDM) gives an age of the universe close to 13.8 billion years and much younger when we explore the universe at high-redshift. The redshift ...
A study led by the Center for Astrobiology (CAB), CSIC-INTA, using modeling techniques developed at the University of Oxford, has uncovered an unprecedented richness of small organic molecules in the deeply obscured nucleus ...
Astronomy
Feb 6, 2026
0
211
When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began operations, one of its earliest surveys was of galaxies that existed during the very early universe. In December 2022, these observations revealed multiple objects that appeared ...
Astronomy
Oct 18, 2025
6
272
When we observe distant celestial objects, there is a possible catch: Is that star I am observing really as reddish as it appears? Or does the star merely look reddish, since its light has had to travel through a cloud of ...
Astronomy
Mar 13, 2025
74
132
