European astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a recently discovered giant disk galaxy known as ADF22.1. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the formation and evolution of this galaxy.
ADF22.1, also known as ADF22.A1, is a giant disk barred spiral galaxy residing in a proto-cluster known as SSA22 at a redshift of 3.09. It has an effective radius of some 22,800 light years and a stellar mass of about 100 billion solar masses. Previous observations have found that it is a dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) hosting an intrinsically bright yet heavily obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN).
Giant disk galaxies with high stellar masses, like ADF22.1, are generally expected to be quiescent, bulge-dominated systems. Given that ADF22.1 is a starburst galaxy, it is perceived by astronomers as a unique laboratory to explore how early universe galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) accumulate their mass and ultimately evolve into the most massive elliptical galaxies.
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To progress to the next level in understanding reality, we need to combine quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general relativity. And to do that, most physicists believe we need a theory of quantum gravity… which means we need gravitons. But it also seems like the laws of physics make it impossible to ever detect this quantum particle of gravity. Almost like the universe is set up to keep the final answer forever out of our reach. So, can we outsmart the universe, catch a graviton, and finally solve physics?
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In the era of precision cosmology, research often means big science: large observatories, highly complex instruments, international collaborations and substantial funding. Yet even in such an advanced field, progress is still possible—including in the search for elusive dark matter—through more agile approaches, driven by small teams and young researchers, supported by institutions and a good dose of ingenuity.
In a paper titled “A New Limit for Axion Dark Matter with SPACE” published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, a group of then-undergraduate students from the University of Hamburg built a cavity detector to search for axions—among the most promising candidates for dark matter—and set new experimental limits on their properties.
The result was achieved with relatively limited resources, showing that even small-scale experiments can make a meaningful contribution to one of the most open challenges in modern physics.
New Curtin University-led research has used a radio telescope that spans Earth to snap images that measure the immense power of jets from black holes, confirming scientists’ theories of how black holes help shape the structure of the universe.
In a paper published in Nature Astronomy, researchers found the power of the jets in Cygnus X-1—a system comprised of the first confirmed black hole and a supergiant star—was equivalent to the power output of 10,000 suns.
To record the measurement, researchers used an array of linked-up telescopes separated by large distances to observe the black hole jets being buffeted by the winds of the star as the black hole moved around its orbit—much like how strong winds on Earth can push around water in a fountain.
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Physics is this close to understanding the entire universe. And what lives in this gap? Many physicists think it’s the elusive graviton—the quantum particle of gravity—whose discovery will finally allow us to stitch together our two great theories of nature into a single master theory. But what is the graviton, and does it even exist?
Is Earth’s core a solid or a liquid? Yes. The mysteries of our own planet’s interior have, in many ways, been harder to crack than those of the rest of the cosmos. We can send probes to the edge of the solar system, and the 42 billion light years to the cosmic horizon are largely transparent—a big enough telescope can see the most distant galaxy. But the 6400km to Earth’s center are both opaque to light and far beyond the reach of any conceivable drill. The best we can do for most of our planetary depths is to listen to the faint rumblings of distant earthquakes and then try to piece together how those seismic waves bounce around the interior.
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The new research explores a universe with more dimensions than the familiar four. In this framework, the cosmos contains seven dimensions, three of which are compact and invisible at everyday scales.
“We experience three dimensions of space and one of time — four dimensions in total,” Pinčák said. “Our model proposes that the universe actually has seven dimensions: the four we know, plus three tiny extra dimensions curled up so tightly that we cannot directly perceive them.”
These extra dimensions are arranged in a highly symmetrical structure known as a G₂ geometry. This mathematical framework, often explored in advanced theories such as a version of string theory known as M-theory, determines how the hidden dimensions are “folded.”
All right, let’s go. Number 10, the infinite bubble bath. In 1980, physicist Alan Guth proposed a theory that solved several major problems in cosmology at once. His idea, called cosmic inflation, suggested that in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe expanded faster than the speed of light, doubling in size repeatedly until it became the cosmos we observe today.
DESI has mapped more than 47 million galaxies and quasars, creating the largest high-resolution 3D map of our Universe to date. Because of the instrument’s excellent performance and hints that dark energy might evolve, DESI will continue observations into 2028 and further expand the map. DESI was constructed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope.
Last night, the 5,000 fiber-optic eyes of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) swiveled onto a patch of sky near the Little Dipper. Roughly every 20 minutes, they locked onto distant pinpricks of light, gathering photons that had traveled toward Earth for billions of years. When the Sun rose, DESI collaborators marked the completion of a major milestone: successfully surveying all of the area in DESI’s planned map of the Universe.
The five-year survey, finished ahead of schedule and with vastly more data than expected, has produced the largest high-resolution 3D map of the Universe ever made. Researchers use that map to explore dark energy, the fundamental ingredient that makes up about 70% of our Universe and is driving its accelerating expansion.
