LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Previous studies conducted by NASA using the Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer (COBE) and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy (WMAP) anisotropy probe measured the radiation from the universe when it was only 300,000 years, confirming the theoretical models of its early evolution. Thanks to improved sensitivity and resolution, Planck ESA observatory studied the long wavelength to new depths during a 2-year observation, providing new, severe physical constraints in the first few moments of the universe. Moreover, the possible detection and investigation of the so-called B-wave polarization pattern on a cosmic microwave background (CMB), impressed by gravitational waves during these initial moments, will provide guidance on how large-scale structures we see today are formed.
Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories have shown that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate, which means that one day - in the very distant future - everyone who looks into the night sky will see only our Galaxy and its stars. Billions of other galaxies will not be detected by these future observers. The origin of the force that breaks the universe is a mystery, and astronomers simply call it "dark energy." This new, unknown component, which contains ~ 68% of the content of matter in space, will determine the final fate of all. Determining the nature of dark energy, its possible history over cosmic time, is perhaps the most important quest for astronomy for the next decade and lies at the intersection of cosmology, astrophysics, and basic physics.
Knowing how the laws of physics behave in the extremes of time and space, near a black hole or neutron star, is also an important part of the puzzle that we must get if we are to understand how the universe works. Current X-ray and gamma-ray observatories, such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NuSTAR, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and ESM XMM-Newton, generate a wealth of information about the state of matter near the source system in the extreme gravitational fields unattainable on Earth.
