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Institute of Astronomy

 

On the metal-poor edge of the Milky Way "thin disc"

Recent IoA Publications - Tue, 06/02/2024 - 10:57
The emergence of the disc in our Galaxy and the relation of the thick and thin disc formation and evolution is still a matter of debate. The chemo-dynamical characterization of disc stars is key to resolve this question, in particular at parameter regimes where both disc components overlap, such as the region around [Fe/H] $\sim$ $-0.7$ corresponding to the thin disc metal-poor end. In this paper we re-assess the recent detection of a metal-poor extension of stars moving with thin-disc-like rotational velocities between -2 20,000) spectroscopic surveys available, the GALAH DR3 and the APOGEE DR17. We confirm that there are high angular-momentum stars moving in thin-disc-like orbits, i.e., with high angular momentum $\rm L_{z}/J_{tot}$ > 0.95, and close to the Galactic plane, $\rm |Z_{max}|$

What is Dark Energy? Inside our accelerating, expanding Universe

Astronomy News - Tue, 06/02/2024 - 10:28

11 min read

What is Dark Energy? Inside our accelerating, expanding Universe

Some 13.8 billion years ago, the universe began with a rapid expansion we call the big bang. After this initial expansion, which lasted a fraction of a second, gravity started to slow the universe down. But the cosmos wouldn’t stay this way. Nine billion years after the universe began, its expansion started to speed up, driven by an unknown force that scientists have named dark energy.

But what exactly is dark energy?

The short answer is: We don’t know. But we do know that it exists, it’s making the universe expand at an accelerating rate, and approximately 68.3 to 70% of the universe is dark energy.

The history of the universe is outlined in this infographic. NASA A Brief History It All Started With Cepheids

Dark energy wasn’t discovered until the late 1990s. But its origin in scientific study stretches all the way back to 1912 when American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt made an important discovery using Cepheid variables, a class of stars whose brightness fluctuates with a regularity that depends on the star’s brightness.

All Cepheid stars with a certain period (a Cepheid’s period is the time it takes to go from bright, to dim, and bright again) have the same absolute magnitude, or luminosity – the amount of light they put out. Leavitt measured these stars and proved that there is a relationship between their regular period of brightness and luminosity. Leavitt’s findings made it possible for astronomers to use a star’s period and luminosity to measure the distances between us and Cepheid stars in far-off galaxies (and our own Milky Way).

Around this same time in history, astronomer Vesto Slipher observed spiral galaxies using his telescope’s spectrograph, a device that splits light into the colors that make it up, much like the way a prism splits light into a rainbow. He used the spectrograph, a relatively recent invention at the time, to see the different wavelengths of light coming from the galaxies in different spectral lines. With his observations, Silpher was the first astronomer to observe how quickly the galaxy was moving away from us, called redshift, in distant galaxies. These observations would prove to be critical for many future scientific breakthroughs, including the discovery of dark energy.

Redshift is a term used when astronomical objects are moving away from us and the light coming from those objects stretches out. Light behaves like a wave, and red light has the longest wavelength. So, the light coming from objects moving away from us has a longer wavelength, stretching to the “red end” of the electromagnetic.

Discovering an Expanding Universe

The discovery of galactic redshift, the period-luminosity relation of Cepheid variables, and a newfound ability to gauge a star or galaxy’s distance eventually played a role in astronomers observing that galaxies were getting farther away from us over time, which showed how the universe was expanding. In the years that followed, different scientists around the world started to put the pieces of an expanding universe together.

In 1922, Russian scientist and mathematician Alexander Friedmann published a paper detailing multiple possibilities for the history of the universe. The paper, which was based on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity published in 1917, included the possibility that the universe is expanding.

In 1927, Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître, who is said to have been unaware of Friedmann’s work, published a paper also factoring in Einstein’s theory of general relativity. And, while Einstein stated in his theory that the universe was static, Lemaître showed how the equations in Einstein’s theory actually support the idea that the universe is not static but, in fact, is actually expanding.

Astronomer Edwin Hubble confirmed that the universe was expanding in 1929 using observations made by his associate, astronomer Milton Humason. Humason measured the redshift of spiral galaxies. Hubble and Humason then studied Cepheid stars in those galaxies, using the stars to determine the distance of their galaxies (or nebulae, as they called them). They compared the distances of these galaxies to their redshift and tracked how the farther away an object is, the bigger its redshift and the faster it is moving away from us. The pair found that objects like galaxies are moving away from Earth faster the farther away they are, at upwards of hundreds of thousands of miles per second – an observation now known as Hubble’s Law, or the Hubble- Lemaître law. The universe, they confirmed, is really expanding.

This composite image features one of the most complicated and dramatic collisions between galaxy clusters ever seen. Known officially as Abell 2744, this system has been dubbed Pandora’s Cluster because of the wide variety of different structures found. Data from Chandra (red) show gas with temperatures of millions of degrees. In blue is a map showing the total mass concentration (mostly dark matter) based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Subaru telescope. Optical data from HST and VLT also show the constituent galaxies of the clusters. Astronomers think at least four galaxy clusters coming from a variety of directions are involved with this collision. Expansion is Speeding Up, Supernovae Show

Scientists previously thought that the universe’s expansion would likely be slowed down by gravity over time, an expectation backed by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. But in 1998, everything changed when two different teams of astronomers observing far-off supernovae noticed that (at a certain redshift) the stellar explosions were dimmer than expected. These groups were led by astronomers Adam Riess, Saul Perlmutter, and Brian Schmidt. This trio won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.

While dim supernovae might not seem like a major find, these astronomers were looking at Type 1a supernovae, which are known to have a certain level of luminosity. So they knew that there must be another factor making these objects appear dimmer. Scientists can determine distance (and speed) using an objects’ brightness, and dimmer objects are typically farther away (though surrounding dust and other factors can cause an object to dim).

This led the scientists to conclude that these supernovae were just much farther away than they expected by looking at their redshifts.

Using the objects’ brightness, the researchers determined the distance of these supernovae. And using the spectrum, they were able to figure out the objects’ redshift and, therefore, how fast they were moving away from us. They found that the supernovae were not as close as expected, meaning they had traveled farther away from us faster than ancitipated. These observations led scientists to ultimately conclude that the universe itself must be expanding faster over time.

While other possible explanations for these observations have been explored, astronomers studying even more distant supernovae or other cosmic phenomena in more recent years continued to gather evidence and build support for the idea that the universe is expanding faster over time, a phenomenon now called cosmic acceleration. 

But, as scientists built up a case for cosmic acceleration, they also asked: Why? What could be driving the universe to stretch out faster over time?

Enter dark energy.

What Exactly is Dark Energy?

Right now, dark energy is just the name that astronomers gave to the mysterious “something” that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate.

Dark energy has been described by some as having the effect of a negative pressure that is pushing space outward. However, we don’t know if dark energy has the effect of any type of force at all. There are many ideas floating around about what dark energy could possibly be. Here are four leading explanations for dark energy. Keep in mind that it’s possible it’s something else entirely.

Vacuum Energy:

Some scientists think that dark energy is a fundamental, ever-present background energy in space known as vacuum energy, which could be equal to the cosmological constant, a mathematical term in the equations of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Originally, the constant existed to counterbalance gravity, resulting in a static universe. But when Hubble confirmed that the universe was actually expanding, Einstein removed the constant, calling it “my biggest blunder,” according to physicist George Gamow.

But when it was later discovered that the universe’s expansion was actually accelerating, some scientists suggested that there might actually be a non-zero value to the previously-discredited cosmological constant. They suggested that this additional force would be necessary to accelerate the expansion of the universe. This theorized that this mystery component could be attributed to something called “vacuum energy,” which is a theoretical background energy permeating all of space.

Space is never exactly empty. According to quantum field theory, there are virtual particles, or pairs of particles and antiparticles. It’s thought that these virtual particles cancel each other out almost as soon as they crop up in the universe, and that this act of popping in and out of existence could be made possible by “vacuum energy” that fills the cosmos and pushes space outward.

While this theory has been a popular topic of discussion, scientists investigating this option have calculated how much vacuum energy there should theoretically be in space. They showed that there should either be so much vacuum energy that, at the very beginning, the universe would have expanded outwards so quickly and with so much force that no stars or galaxies could have formed, or… there should be absolutely none. This means that the amount of vacuum energy in the cosmos must be much smaller than it is in these predictions. However, this discrepancy has yet to be solved and has even earned the moniker “the cosmological constant problem.”

Quintessence:

Some scientists think that dark energy could be a type of energy fluid or field that fills space, behaves in an opposite way to normal matter, and can vary in its amount and distribution throughout both time and space. This hypothesized version of dark energy has been nicknamed quintessence after the theoretical fifth element discussed by ancient Greek philosophers.

It’s even been suggested by some scientists that quintessence could be some combination of dark energy and dark matter, though the two are currently considered completely separate from one another. While the two are both major mysteries to scientists, dark matter is thought to make up about 85% of all matter in the universe.

Space Wrinkles:

Some scientists think that dark energy could be a sort of defect in the fabric of the universe itself; defects like cosmic strings, which are hypothetical one-dimensional “wrinkles” thought to have formed in the early universe. 

A Flaw in General Relativity:

Some scientists think that dark energy isn’t something physical that we can discover. Rather, they think there could be an issue with general relativity and Einstein’s theory of gravity and how it works on the scale of the observable universe. Within this explanation, scientists think that it’s possible to modify our understanding of gravity in a way that explains observations of the universe made without the need for dark energy. Einstein actually proposed such an idea in 1919 called unimodular gravity, a modified version of general relativity that scientists today think wouldn’t require dark energy to make sense of the universe.

The Future

Dark energy is one of the great mysteries of the universe. For decades, scientists have theorized about our expanding universe. Now, for the first time ever, we have tools powerful enough to put these theories to the test and really investigate the big question: “what is dark energy?”

NASA plays a critical role in the ESA (European Space Agency) mission Euclid (launched in 2023), which will make a 3D map of the universe to see how matter has been pulled apart by dark energy over time. This map will include observations of billions of galaxies found up to 10 billion light-years from Earth.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027, is designed to investigate dark energy, among many other science topics, and will also create a 3D dark matter map. Roman’s resolution will be as sharp as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s, but with a field of view 100 times larger, allowing it to capture more expansive images of the universe. This will allow scientists to map how matter is structured and spread across the universe and explore how dark energy behaves and has changed over time. Roman will also conduct an additional survey to detect Type Ia supernovae

In addition to NASA’s missions and efforts, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, supported by a large collaboration that includes the U.S. National Science Foundation, which is currently under construction in Chile, is also poised to support our growing understanding of dark energy. The ground-based observatory is expected to be operational in 2025.

The combined efforts of Euclid, Roman, and Rubin will usher in a new “golden age” of cosmology, in which scientists will collect more detailed information than ever about the great mysteries of dark energy.

Additionally, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (launched in 2021), the world’s most powerful and largest space telescope, aims to make contributions to several areas of research, and will contribute to studies of dark energy.

NASA’s SPHEREx (the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission, scheduled to launch no later than April 2025, aims to investigate the origins of the universe. Scientists expect that the data collected with SPHEREx, which will survey the entire sky in near-infrared light, including over 450 million galaxies, could help to further our understanding of dark energy.

NASA also supports a citizen science project called Dark Energy Explorers, which enables anyone in the world, even those who have no scientific training, to help in the search for dark energy answers.

*A brief note*

Lastly, to clarify, dark energy is not the same as dark matter. Their main similarity is that we don’t yet know what they are!

By Chelsea Gohd
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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JWST is most in-demand telescope ever — leaving many astronomers in the cold

Astronomy News - Tue, 06/02/2024 - 10:28

Nature, Published online: 05 February 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00315-1

Reviewers will likely approve only one in every nine research proposals submitted in latest application cycle.

Thu 08 Feb 16:00: Stellar populations and dust build-up in the early Universe

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Mon, 05/02/2024 - 16:15
Stellar populations and dust build-up in the early Universe

We are witnessing an exciting revolution in our understanding of the first galaxies. JWST observations have already revealed galaxies in the first few hundred million years of the Universe and their detailed characterization in terms of chemical enrichment and stellar populations, revealing galaxies as metal poor as 1% of the solar value, and even potential traces of the first (Pop III ) stars at z ≈ 6.5 – 10.5. In addition to the stunning discoveries made recently by JWST , there have also been recent probes of the dust content of galaxies in the first billion years of the Universe with ALMA . This is a key and rapid transition phase for the evolution of dust, as galaxy evolutionary timescales become comparable with the formation timescales of dust. In this talk, I will attempt to provide some indications on the diversity of physical properties of the first galaxies expected by theoretical models, and on the current (limited) understanding of dust enrichment at very early cosmic epochs.

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Thu 15 Feb 16:00: Title to be confirmed

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Mon, 05/02/2024 - 11:52
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What we know about the stars where NASA will hunt for alien life

Astronomy News - Mon, 05/02/2024 - 09:46

Scientists have analysed the stars that an upcoming NASA telescope will target in its search for biosignatures, narrowing down the candidates for those that could host potential extraterrestrial life

Tue 13 Feb 13:00: Disc evolution in young intermediate-mass stars

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Mon, 05/02/2024 - 09:05
Disc evolution in young intermediate-mass stars

Planets are born from circumstellar discs and the evolution of these discs determines the final architecture of planetary systems. The stellar mass range between 1.5 and 3.5 solar masses presents a particularly interesting circumstellar disc evolution; most notably, it is dominated by the EUV /FUV photoevaporation regime on the pre-main sequence, it contains the majority of gaseous debris discs, and it also shows the highest giant planet frequency. In our recent spectroscopic VLT /X-Shooter survey (UV to nIR), combined with WISE data (nIR to mIR), we identified 135 pre-main sequence (PMS) intermediate mass stars (IMSs) in the Southern sky. This is the first unbiased sample of IMSs in the PMS , allowing a study of disc evolution. Our sample, encompassing protoplanetary and debris discs, also revealed a significant number of discs between these two evolutionary stages. We find that the IR excess evolution of IMSs differs from that seen for low-mass stars (LMSs), exemplified by samples drawn from nearby star forming regions. We observe that, in IMSs, the inner disc regions are vacated in their entirety, in contrast to the LMSs where we note a more gradual inside-out dissipation. We also investigated the presence of gas absorption features in our sample via optical high-resolution spectroscopy to identify gas-bearing debris discs. This requires detailed comparisons to spectra of nearby stars to eliminate objects with foreground cloud absorption as cause of the absorption features. In particular, we apply this effective method to one such disc, eta Tel, discarding the earlier claim of disc wind as the origin for the absorption features. Finally, we discuss our several ongoing and future surveys investigating the nature of circumstellar discs around IMSs.

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European mission approved to detect cosmic ripples

Astronomy News - Sat, 03/02/2024 - 18:05

The Lisa project to detect gravitational waves will be one of the most complex ever space missions.

The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems V: Do Self-Consistent Atmospheric Models Represent JWST Spectra? A Showcase With VHS 1256 b

Recent IoA Publications - Sat, 03/02/2024 - 16:48
The unprecedented medium-resolution (R~1500-3500) near- and mid-infrared (1-18um) spectrum provided by JWST for the young (140+/-20Myr) low-mass (12-20MJup) L-T transition (L7) companion VHS1256b gives access to a catalogue of molecular absorptions. In this study, we present a comprehensive analysis of this dataset utilizing a forward modelling approach, applying our Bayesian framework, ForMoSA. We explore five distinct atmospheric models to assess their performance in estimating key atmospheric parameters: Teff, log(g), [M/H], C/O, gamma, fsed, and R. Our findings reveal that each parameter's estimate is significantly influenced by factors such as the wavelength range considered and the model chosen for the fit. This is attributed to systematic errors in the models and their challenges in accurately replicating the complex atmospheric structure of VHS1256b, notably the complexity of its clouds and dust distribution. To propagate the impact of these systematic uncertainties on our atmospheric property estimates, we introduce innovative fitting methodologies based on independent fits performed on different spectral windows. We finally derived a Teff consistent with the spectral type of the target, considering its young age, which is confirmed by our estimate of log(g). Despite the exceptional data quality, attaining robust estimates for chemical abundances [M/H] and C/O, often employed as indicators of formation history, remains challenging. Nevertheless, the pioneering case of JWST's data for VHS1256b has paved the way for future acquisitions of substellar spectra that will be systematically analyzed to directly compare the properties of these objects and correct the systematics in the models.

Euclid preparation. The Near-IR Background Dipole Experiment with Euclid

Recent IoA Publications - Sat, 03/02/2024 - 16:29
Verifying the fully kinematic nature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole is of fundamental importance in cosmology. In the standard cosmological model with the Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric from the inflationary expansion the CMB dipole should be entirely kinematic. Any non-kinematic CMB dipole component would thus reflect the preinflationary structure of spacetime probing the extent of the FLRW applicability. Cosmic backgrounds from galaxies after the matter-radiation decoupling, should have kinematic dipole component identical in velocity with the CMB kinematic dipole. Comparing the two can lead to isolating the CMB non-kinematic dipole. It was recently proposed that such measurement can be done using the near-IR cosmic infrared background (CIB) measured with the currently operating Euclid telescope, and later with Roman. The proposed method reconstructs the resolved CIB, the Integrated Galaxy Light (IGL), from Euclid's Wide Survey and probes its dipole, with a kinematic component amplified over that of the CMB by the Compton-Getting effect. The amplification coupled with the extensive galaxy samples forming the IGL would determine the CIB dipole with an overwhelming signal/noise, isolating its direction to sub-degree accuracy. We develop details of the method for Euclid's Wide Survey in 4 bands spanning 0.6 to 2 mic. We isolate the systematic and other uncertainties and present methodologies to minimize them, after confining the sample to the magnitude range with negligible IGL/CIB dipole from galaxy clustering. These include the required star-galaxy separation, accounting for the extinction correction dipole using the method newly developed here achieving total separation, accounting for the Earth's orbital motion and other systematic effects. (Abridged)

The Power of High Precision Broadband Photometry: Tracing the Milky Way Density Profile with Blue Horizontal Branch stars in the Dark Energy Survey

Recent IoA Publications - Sat, 03/02/2024 - 13:36
Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) stars, excellent distant tracers for probing the Milky Way's halo density profile, are distinguished in the $(g-r)_0$ vs $(i-z)_0$ color space from another class of stars, blue straggler stars (BSs). We develop a Bayesian mixture model to classify BHB stars using high-precision photometry data from the Dark Energy Survey Data Release 2 (DES DR2). We select $\sim2100$ highly-probable BHBs based on their $griz$ photometry and the associated uncertainties, and use these stars to map the stellar halo over the Galactocentric radial range $20 \lesssim R \lesssim 70$ kpc. After excluding known stellar overdensities, we find that the number density $n_\star$ of BHBs can be represented by a power law density profile $n_\star \propto R^{-\alpha}$ with an index of $\alpha=4.28_{-0.12}^{+0.13}$, consistent with existing literature values. In addition, we examine the impact of systematic errors and the spatial inhomogeneity on the fitted density profile. Our work demonstrates the effectiveness of high-precision $griz$ photometry in selecting BHB stars. The upcoming photometric survey from the Rubin Observatory, expected to reach depths 2-3 magnitudes greater than DES during its 10-year mission, will enable us to investigate the density profile of the Milky Way's halo out to the virial radius, unravelling the complex processes of formation and evolution in our Galaxy.

Thu 08 Feb 11:30: Problems with (our) galaxy formation simulations and some new angles

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Thu, 01/02/2024 - 14:26
Problems with (our) galaxy formation simulations and some new angles

Stellar feedback is a crucial component in controlling the baryon cycle in galaxies. However, it is not very clear how this can be done without assuming exotic models of stellar feedback. In this talk I will first discuss why we have not been very successful in producing realistic galaxies in our simulations, and present some attempts to solve this problem. I will also discuss how Lyman alpha profiles can potentially be used to place some constraints on cosmological simulations with cosmic ray feedback. This talk is intended to be thought-provoking rather than a collection of success stories.

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Douglas Gough awarded The Crafoord Prize in Astronomy

Latest News - Wed, 31/01/2024 - 18:14

The Crafoord Prize in Astronomy The Crafoord Prize in Astronomy 2024 is awarded to Douglas Gough , University of Cambridge, UK, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard , Aarhus University, Denmark, and Conny Aerts , KU Leuven, Belgium “for developing the methods of asteroseismology and their application to the study of the interior...

Fri 28 Jun 11:30: Title to be confirmed

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Wed, 31/01/2024 - 16:38
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Next External Talks - Wed, 31/01/2024 - 15:00
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Fri 19 Apr 11:30: Title to be confirmed

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Wed, 31/01/2024 - 12:24
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Fri 12 Apr 11:30: Title to be confirmed

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Wed, 31/01/2024 - 12:23
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Tue 06 Feb 13:00: Photoevaporation from Exoplanet Atmospheres: Understanding the Role of Stellar Winds and Considering Water-rich Atmospheres Room changed

IoA Institute of Astronomy Talk Lists - Tue, 30/01/2024 - 10:54
Photoevaporation from Exoplanet Atmospheres: Understanding the Role of Stellar Winds and Considering Water-rich Atmospheres

The atmospheres of close-in exoplanets are extremely vulnerable to the effects of stellar UV to X-ray radiation. Photoevaporation can significantly alter planetary atmospheres or even strip them entirely, potentially rendering a planet uninhabitable. Understanding how these atmospheres evolve, persist, or fade away remains a fundamental challenge. In this talk, I will discuss two distinct but interconnected areas of photoevaporative research.

Firstly, I will discuss the interaction between the stellar wind and photoevaporating atmospheres. I will present 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the interaction between the stellar wind and the photoevaporating outflow of a planet orbiting an M dwarf. This analysis reveals a diverse range of magnetosphere morphologies and plasma distributions due to the wind-outflow interaction. I consider how these changing morphologies might impact observable hydrogen Lyman-alpha signatures during planetary transits.

In the second part, I will delve into our current understanding of photoevaporation from water-rich atmospheres. Conventional analytic approaches often oversimplify the process, assuming two scenarios: the escape of only lighter hydrogen, or the dragging of oxygen along with escaping hydrogen. These two scenarios lead to two end cases: a planet that has retained its water-rich atmosphere or a planet which has lost its atmosphere, becoming dry and desiccated. I will challenge these oversimplifications by presenting results from a novel 1D multifluid hydrodynamic model of photoevaporation from a water-rich atmosphere, which shows oxygen escape should no longer be described by a simple on/off switch but instead requires careful modelling.

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