 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
 by Staff Writers Canary Islands, Spain (SPX) Oct 03, 2018
An international team from some ten scientific institutions has shown that almost the whole of the early universe shows a faint glow in the Lyman-alpha line. This line is one of the key "fingerprints" of hydrogen. This detection reveals the existence of extensive masses of gas around primitive galaxies. The results of this study are based on observations made with the MUSE spectrograph, on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile. The principal investigator of the research, Lutz Wisotzki, of the Leibniz Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (Germany) recalls that when he presented this image for the first time at a conference a year ago a colleague exclaimed "Twenty years ago there was no Lyman-alpha anywhere, but now it's everywhere!" The high sensitivity of MUSE has been the key to see that Lyman-alpha emission covers the whole sky, including the apparently empty spaces between the galaxies. The article which is published yesterday in Nature magazine affects, and provides a link between, several lines of astrophysical research. It connects the gas previously detected which is feeding the galaxies with the Lyman-alpha emission discovered with MUSE. Also its unprecedented sensitivity gives us new knowledge about the gas in the environments of the galaxies, above all during their infancy. It also offers a basis for speculation about the sources of energy for all the Lyman-alpha emission, and finally the results will be of use for the next generation of theoretical models for the formation of galaxies. Astronomical research is concerned to obtain the most complete possible picture of the universe and its components. In this context the results of this work have supplied a piece of the puzzle which had not been visible until now. This piece is not connected with a single interesting object, but it offers a new view of the cosmos through a representative window. It shows that the sky looks quite different depending on what type of spectacles we use to observe it, just as the sky at radio or X-ray wavelengths looks quite different from the visible sky. "While the Hubble Space Telescope shows us light only where there are galaxies, and between them we do not see anything, only empty sky, MUSE in Lyman-alpha shows light wherever we look" explains Ana Monreal-Ibero, an IAC researcher and a co-author of the publication. The study using this instrument has also allowed us to obtain information about some of the faintest galaxies known, so faint that they were not even detected by the Hubble. "In the future we plan to make even more sensitive measurements" concludes Lutz Wisotzki. "We want to know the details about how these immense cosmic reservoirs of atomic hydrogen are distributed in space". Scientific article: Wisotzki, L. et al. Nearly all the sky is covered by Lyman-a emission around high-redshift galaxies. Nature 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0564-6.
A universe aglow: lyman-alpha emission across the entire sky Garching, Germany (SPX) Oct 02, 2018 Deep observations made with the MUSE spectrograph on ESO's Very Large Telescope have uncovered vast cosmic reservoirs of atomic hydrogen surrounding distant galaxies. The exquisite sensitivity of MUSE allowed for direct observations of dim clouds of hydrogen glowing with Lyman-alpha emission in the early Universe?-?revealing that almost the whole night sky is invisibly aglow. An unexpected abundance of Lyman-alpha emission in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) region was discovered by an internati ... read more
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Google
