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‘Sideline quasars’ helped to stifle early galaxy formation, says CU study

By Guest PostMarch 31, 2013Scienceastronomers, big bang, black holes, boulder, brightest quasars, caltech astronomer, cos, cosmic web, dark ages, david syphers, early universe, Epoch, fossil record, galaxy formation, gaseous material, gases in universe, generations of stars, helium atoms, helium gas, helium reionization era, Hubble Space Telescope, intergalactic global warming, intergalactic medium, ionizing radiation, lighthouse, maarten schmidt, michael shull, neutral helium gas, planetary sciences, plasma, quasar, quasi stellar, radio source, sideline quasars, stars or galaxies, swiss cheese, ultraviolet spectrograph, universe, university of colorado

University of Colorado Boulder astronomers targeting one of the brightest quasars glowing in the universe some 11 billion years ago say “sideline quasars” likely teamed up with it to heat abundant helium gas billions of years ago, preventing small galaxy formation.

CU-Boulder Professor Michael Shull and Research Associate David Syphers used the Hubble Space Telescope to look at the quasar — the brilliant core of an active galaxy that acted as a “lighthouse” for the observations — to better understand the conditions of the early universe. The scientists studied gaseous material between the telescope and the quasar with a $70 million ultraviolet spectrograph on Hubble designed by a team from CU-Boulder’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy. (more…)

First Stars, Galaxies Formed more Rapidly than Expected

By Guest PostSeptember 9, 2012Scienceanalysis, anisotropy probe, Antarctica, astronomer, background, Berkeley, california, christian reichardt, cmb, cosmic microwave, cosmological evolution, data, earth axis, electron, Epoch, Galaxy, geographic, herschel satellite, high resolution, hydrogen atom, image, john carlstrom, kavli foundation, microwave, millimeter wavelength, national, neutral, neutral gas, oliver zahn, period, plasma, polar plateau, proton, radiation, reionization, s chandrasekhar, science foundation, south pole, star, telescope, ultraviolet light, universe, university, wilkinson

Analysis of data from the National Science Foundation’s South Pole Telescope, for the first time, more precisely defines the period of cosmological evolution when the first stars and galaxies formed and gradually illuminated the universe. The data indicate that this period, called the epoch of reionization, was shorter than theorists speculated — and that it ended early.

“We find that the epoch of reionization lasted less than 500 million years and began when the universe was at least 250 million years old,” said Oliver Zahn, a postdoctoral fellow at the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study. “Before this measurement, scientists believed that reionization lasted 750 million years or longer, and had no evidence as to when reionization began.” (more…)

NASA’s Spitzer Detects Comet Storm in Nearby Solar System

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2011Sciencealien solar system, almahata sitta meteorite, bright star in the northern sky, carey lisse, comets, dark seas, earth, Epoch, eta corvi, hailstorm, kuiper belt, late heavy bombardment, man in the moon, maria, NASA, solar system, spitzer space telescope

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in an alien solar system. The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion years ago during a period known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment,” which may have brought water and other life-forming ingredients to Earth.

During this epoch, comets and other frosty objects that were flung from the outer solar system pummeled the inner planets. The barrage scarred our moon and produced large amounts of dust. (more…)

Dinosaur-chewing mammals leave behind oldest known tooth marks

By Guest PostJune 24, 2010Scienceadrosaurid, alberta, aquatic reptile, canada, ceratopsid, champsosaurus, cleveland museum of natural history, deer, dinosaur, dinosaur-chewing mammals, Epoch, femur bone, journal paleontology, late cretaceous, mammalian tooth marks, marsupial, michael j. ryan, multituberculates, nicholas longrich, ornithischian, paleontologists, royal tyrrell museum of palaeontology, university of alberta laboratory for vertebrate palaeon, yale university

New Haven, Conn. — Paleontologists have discovered the oldest mammalian tooth marks yet on the bones of ancient animals, including several large dinosaurs. They report their findings in a paper published online June 16 in the journal Paleontology.

(more…)

The Bigga Snake

By ShamsFebruary 5, 2009ScienceColombia, Epoch, Paleocene, rainforest, snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis

Scientists have just discovered, let’s say, (fortunately) met with the fossil of Titanoboa cerrejonensis (not with the living Giant).