Cosmology News

An international team of astronomers has created the most detailed 3D map yet of Lyman alpha light emitted by hydrogen in the early universe. Using Line Intensity Mapping on data by the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), they identified faint galaxies and gas that were previously difficult to observe. This can now be compared to simulations of the structures in the early universe. The team processed half a petabyte of data to refine their map, revealing unseen objects and enhancing our understanding of galaxy evolution.  more

In recent years, a tantalizing hint of new physics was found in polarization data of the cosmic microwave background from the WMAP and Planck space missions. The so called “cosmic birefringence” is violating parity symmetry, however, the validity of the result was questioned, because the analysis method depends on the modeling of Galactic dust emission. Now, the cosmological interpretation of the signal gains strength as MPA scientists find a comparable effect in the newest data release from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope without relying on Galactic emission. If further independent observations confirm this result as a genuine cosmological signal, it would have profound implications for the fundamental laws of physics and shed light on the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy. more

Black holes with masses between the stellar and supermassive regime are among the most elusive objects in the Universe. These intermediate-mass black holes are believed to reside in many dwarf galaxies. Using new, high-resolution supercomputer simulations, MPA scientists discovered that nuclear star clusters — compact, massive clusters of stars at the centres of galaxies — may be key to enabling these black holes to grow, thus shedding light on the origins of supermassive black holes. more

Quasars are active supermassive black holes located at the centres of massive galaxies that emit energy levels that far exceed the binding energy of their host galaxies. This substantial amount of energy has the potential to impact the gas within and around the galaxies, thereby influencing their evolution. While the importance of this process is acknowledged, its details are still the subject of significant debate. An international team of researchers led by MPA scientists has now obtained observations of the most extensive sample of hydrogen structures surrounding quasars in the early universe to better understand this feedback process. The data reveal how the gas responds to the energy released by the supermassive black holes over distances of several hundred thousand light years, providing a new way to study the impact of quasars on galaxy evolution. 
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Imagine a star not crashing into a supermassive black hole in a fiery explosion, but instead slowly spiraling in, circling closer and closer to its horizon. This is the story of a sub-giant star that is stripped of its hydrogen layer by a black hole companion with a few million solar masses. The left-over helium core is gently drawn in due to strong gravitational wave emission and can be placed so close to the supermassive black hole that it becomes a promising gravitational wave source for the future detector LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). This scenario has been recently investigated by a team at MPA. more