Astronomers Discover Incredibly Rare ‘Fossil Cloud’ Created Minutes After the Big Bang

The fossil cloud is only the third of its kind ever seen by astronomers, but could pave the way for their systematic discovery in the future. Continue reading Astronomers Discover Incredibly Rare ‘Fossil Cloud’ Created Minutes After the Big Bang

Vera Rubin: Shedding Light on Dark Matter

Vera sat hunched in the alcove at Kitt Peak observatory, poring over punch cards. The data was the same as it had been at Lowell, at Palomar, and every other telescope she’d peered through in her feverish race to collect the orbital velocities of stars in Andromeda. Although the data was perfectly clear, the problem it posed was puzzling. If the stars at the edges of spiral galaxy were moving as fast as the ones in the center, but the pull of gravity was weaker, how did they keep from flying off? The only possible answer was that Andromeda contained …read more

Continue reading Vera Rubin: Shedding Light on Dark Matter