News — Cosmology RSS

Peering into the Cosmic Abyss: A Look at Gravitational Wave Astronomy For centuries, we've looked to the cosmos with telescopes, capturing its light and unraveling the secrets of stars, galaxies, and even the very fabric of spacetime. But there's a whole other universe out there, hidden from our traditional view – a universe that vibrates, ripples, and whispers secrets through space-time itself: the universe of gravitational waves. These elusive ripples were first predicted by Albert Einstein over a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity. He envisioned massive objects like black holes or neutron stars interacting in ways that distort the very fabric of spacetime, sending out ripples that propagate at the speed of light. For decades,...

Peering Back to the Dawn: The Technology Behind Cosmic Microwave Background Detection The universe whispers secrets to us, if we know how to listen. One of its most profound messages is encoded in the faint afterglow of the Big Bang itself – the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This ethereal radiation, discovered in 1964, provides a snapshot of the universe when it was just 380,000 years old, a time when light first freely streamed through space. But capturing this cosmic echo requires sophisticated technology capable of sifting through the noise of our own planet and the vast expanse of space. Let's delve into the fascinating world of CMB detection technology: 1. The Quest for Cold: The CMB is incredibly faint, a...