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Cosmic Microwave Background

All articles tagged with #cosmic microwave background

Primordial Magnetic Fields May Resolve Cosmic Expansion Discrepancy
science5 days ago

Primordial Magnetic Fields May Resolve Cosmic Expansion Discrepancy

New research suggests that extremely weak magnetic fields from the early universe could explain the discrepancy in measurements of the universe's expansion rate. By simulating how these fields influenced the formation of hydrogen, scientists found that they may have altered the timing of the universe becoming transparent, thereby shifting the inferred value of the Hubble constant. This finding offers a potential solution to the 'Hubble tension' and provides a window into physics at energies unattainable on Earth.

via ScienceDaily|
#cosmic-microwave-background#cosmology#hubble-tension
BOAT photon hints at new physics beyond Einstein via axions and possible Lorentz-violation
science1 month ago

BOAT photon hints at new physics beyond Einstein via axions and possible Lorentz-violation

A high-energy photon from GRB 221009A, nicknamed the BOAT, arrived on Earth despite expectations it would be absorbed by the cosmic microwave background. Researchers propose it may have traveled as an axion-like particle and later converted back, potentially aided by a high-energy Lorentz-invariance violation, effectively giving photons a “fast lane” through space. The arrival timing aligns with the theory, and if confirmed, could turn space into a natural laboratory for quantum gravity research.

via space.com|
#axion-like-particles#cosmic-microwave-background#gamma-ray-burst
Pigeons, a Giant Antenna, and the First Light of the Universe
science1 month ago

Pigeons, a Giant Antenna, and the First Light of the Universe

Bell Labs’ horn antenna produced a stubborn, directionless hiss that pigeons nested in, but cleaning it out didn’t remove the signal. The persistent noise was later identified as the cosmic microwave background, the 13.8-billion-year-old afterglow of the Big Bang, a discovery credited to Penzias, Wilson, and Dicke and said to mark the birth of modern cosmology. Decades after, Voyager 1 revealed a separate, local plasma tone, underscoring how instruments can yield profound truths beyond their original purpose.

via Space Daily|
#bell-labs#big-bang#cosmic-microwave-background
The Fossil Light That Unlocked the Universe's Dawn
science1 month ago

The Fossil Light That Unlocked the Universe's Dawn

An accessible guide to the cosmic microwave background: the fossil light from 380,000 years after the Big Bang that made the universe transparent, now observed as a 2.7 K microwave map by COBE, WMAP, and Planck; its tiny fluctuations seed galaxies, constrain curvature and matter content, and even highlight the current tension in the measured Hubble constant, reminding us that the cosmos still has mysteries to unveil.

via Daily Kos|
#cosmic-microwave-background#early-universe#hubble-tension
The Big Bang: not an explosion, but the birth of space and time
science1 month ago

The Big Bang: not an explosion, but the birth of space and time

The article explains that the Big Bang was not a violent explosion but the starting expansion of the universe, which has been growing for about 13.8 billion years. Evidence from galaxies moving apart and the Cosmic Microwave Background supports this view. Importantly, there was no space or time before the Big Bang, so asking what happened “before” is tricky. The universe’s expansion continues today and is accelerating, a behavior tied to dark energy though its nature remains not well understood.

via Yahoo|
#big-bang#cosmic-microwave-background#dark-energy
The Oh-My-God Particle: A 50-Joule Cosmic Ray That Still Defies Its Source
science2 months ago

The Oh-My-God Particle: A 50-Joule Cosmic Ray That Still Defies Its Source

On Oct 15, 1991, the Fly’s Eye detector in Utah observed the Oh-My-God particle—a single cosmic ray with about 3.2×10^20 eV, roughly 51 joules, far more energy per particle than any human accelerator. The event arose from an atmospheric shower tracked via ultraviolet fluorescence; the primary was likely a nucleus, though its exact composition remains uncertain. In per-particle terms, its energy was about 47 million times that of an LHC proton, though the collider holds far more total energy overall. At these energies, interactions with the cosmic microwave background (the GZK effect) limit how far such particles can travel, implying a relatively nearby source, yet no definitive origin has been identified. Later observations confirm such extreme events are rare, and the origin of this particle remains unknown, illustrating how nature can push matter beyond present human-made accelerators.

via Space Daily|
#cosmic-microwave-background#flys-eye-detector#gzk-effect
Cosmic Speed Limit in Question: Rethinking How Fast the Universe Expands
science2 months ago

Cosmic Speed Limit in Question: Rethinking How Fast the Universe Expands

Quanta Magazine’s The Joy of Why interview with Adam Riess traces how Type Ia supernovae revealed the universe’s accelerating expansion, explains the local vs. early-universe measurements of the Hubble constant, and frames the current Hubble tension that challenges the Lambda-CDM model. Riess discusses how standard candles and redshift work together to map expansion, the role of dark energy (potentially a cosmological constant), and how upcoming observatories like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Rubin Observatory, Euclid, and JWST aim to resolve whether the tension signals new physics or hidden systematics.

via Quanta Magazine|
#cosmic-microwave-background#dark-energy#hubble-constant
Boomerang Nebula: The Coldest Natural Spot in the Universe
space3 months ago

Boomerang Nebula: The Coldest Natural Spot in the Universe

Astronomers have identified the Boomerang Nebula, a fast-expanding shell around a dying star about 5,000 light-years away, as the coldest natural object known at roughly one degree above absolute zero—colder than the cosmic microwave background of 2.7 K. The extreme chill arises from rapid gas expansion acting like a refrigerator, and the temperature was inferred from how the gas absorbs background radiation. This is a transient stage in a Sun-like star’s death, and the outer gas will warm over time; no colder natural places have been found yet.

via Space Daily|
#boomerang-nebula#coldest-place#cosmic-microwave-background
Baby Universe in High Definition: Clearest View Yet of the Cosmic Dawn
science3 months ago

Baby Universe in High Definition: Clearest View Yet of the Cosmic Dawn

Astronomers using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope have produced the clearest image yet of the cosmic microwave background, revealing light from about 380,000 years after the Big Bang and mapping tiny temperature fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies. The improved data tighten constraints on cosmological parameters, including neutrino masses, and set the stage for future polarization measurements with the Simons Observatory, as researchers seek to connect early-Universe physics with observations of the modern cosmos.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|
#atacama-cosmology-telescope#cosmic-microwave-background#early-universe
Milky Way and Local Group Ride the Cosmic Tug-of-War Between Mass and Void
space3 months ago

Milky Way and Local Group Ride the Cosmic Tug-of-War Between Mass and Void

The Milky Way and its neighboring galaxies are moving through space at about 2.3 million kilometres per hour, driven by a tug‑of‑war between distant mass concentrations pulling us forward (the Great Attractor and the Shapley Concentration) and a vast, nearly empty region behind us pushing away (the Dipole Repeller). The motion is inferred from the cosmic microwave background dipole, showing the Local Group sliding toward denser regions while being repelled by emptiness, a phenomenon shaped by the universe’s large‑scale structure.

via Space Daily|
#cosmic-microwave-background#dipole-repeller#great-attractor
TV Snow Carried the Universe’s Oldest Light, Mostly Hidden in Plain Sight
science4 months ago

TV Snow Carried the Universe’s Oldest Light, Mostly Hidden in Plain Sight

A Space Daily explainer shows that some analog TV static came from the cosmic microwave background, the faint relic light from the early universe, though the exact share is device- and environment-dependent and often overstated as a fixed percent. Most of the snow was from the TV set itself and terrestrial noise, not the CMB. The CMB was discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1964–65 and interpreted as Big Bang relic light by Dicke’s group; it dates to about 380,000 years after the Big Bang (recombination) and has cooled to ~2.7 kelvin today. With analog broadcasting retired, the historical “oldest light” is a memory, though the science remains.

via Space Daily|
#analog-television#cosmic-microwave-background#early-universe
High-Altitude Submillimeter Eye Opens on Chilean Summit
science5 months ago

High-Altitude Submillimeter Eye Opens on Chilean Summit

Chile’s Cerro Chajnantor summit hosts the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST), a 6‑m instrument designed for rapid, wide-field surveys in submillimeter light using a Crossed-Dragone design and Prime Cam with up to seven detector modules and about 100,000 superconducting detectors. The dry, high-altitude site enables deep, dust-penetrating observations to map the cosmic microwave background, galaxy clusters, star formation, and the epoch of reionisation. Built for CCAT Observatory by an international collaboration, FYST represents 34 years of effort and will soon begin delivering unprecedented views of the universe.

via Universe Today|
#astronomy#cerro-chajnantor#cosmic-microwave-background