View Post

Second Light

In Cosmology by Brian Koberlein3 Comments

The period between the end of the big bang and the appearance of the first stars is known as the cosmic dark ages. It lasted longer than we thought.

View Post

Everything’s Fine, Situation Normal

In Cosmology by Brian Koberlein1 Comment

More results from the Planck collaboration are coming in, this time from conference in Italy. There’s been a lot of excitement building up to this new release, particularly given some of the unresolved issues in the standard model of cosmology.

View Post

Nine Skies

In Cosmology by Brian Koberlein0 Comments

This month Astronomy & Astrophysics released 31 articles on data gathered by the Planck satellite. This includes nine all-sky surveys at a range of wavelengths from radio to infrared. It represents the most detailed map of the cosmic sky to date, and already there are some interesting results.

View Post

It’s Not Nothing

In Cosmology by Brian Koberlein4 Comments

Polarization in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is in the news again. This time with new results from a project known as POLARBEAR. The results were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal, and it swings the observational needle back towards the existence of cosmic inflation.