stsci-nh-p2101-d-1280x720.png

This very wide, multi-frame panoramic photograph was taken in October 2014 at Canyon de Chile National Monument in Northeast Arizona. The zodiacal light is at the left, with the northern milky way to the right.

Z. Levay

Although we may think of space as a vast sea of ​​blackness, all we have to do is look up at night to see that it is interspersed with countless stars, galaxies and even a few. Planets visible to the naked eye.

Scientists recently used data from NASA’s New Horizons mission outside Pluto to gauge how dark the cosmic background really is. What they found has implications for what we thought we knew about the formation of the entire universe.

In short, space is very dark and there cannot be many galaxies there, adding its faint glow to the background, as astronomers previously estimated.

“It’s an important number to know – how many galaxies are there?” Mark Postman of the Space Telescope Science Institute said in Declaration Tuesday. “We simply don’t see light from 2 trillion galaxies.”

that was Earlier estimate It is derived from Hubble Space Telescope observations, but A. New study It will be published in the Astrophysical Journal and co-authored by Postman, indicating that the total number of galaxies in the universe may be in the hundreds of billions, not the trillions.

Interestingly, this is closer to an earlier figure until you guess there were about 200 billion galaxies. This was based on Hubble data from the 1990s.

New Horizons’ position near the edge of the solar system gives an surrounding sky 10 times darker than Hubble’s location.

“These kinds of measurements are very difficult. Lots of people have been trying to do that for a long time,” said study co-author Todd Lawer of the National Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory. “New Horizons has provided us with a benchmark point to better measure the cosmic visual background than anyone has been able to do.”

The team’s results will be presented on Wednesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Next James Webb Space TelescopeThe, which is currently slated to be launched on Halloween, could help provide more insights into the number and type of galaxies that provide a faint glow in the background that prevents the universe from becoming completely black.

Follow Space Calendar 2021 for CNET To keep up with the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your Google Calendar.

READ  NASA, 생명의 흔적을 찾기 위한 우주 탐색을 위한 차세대 망원경 계획 발표
답글 남기기

이메일 주소는 공개되지 않습니다. 필수 필드는 *로 표시됩니다

You May Also Like

거대한 중추절과 부분 월식의 극적인 이미지

화요일 저녁 하늘은 이중 달 현상, 즉 거대한 중추월과 부분 월식으로 인해…

비디오에 포착된 시속 32,000마일로 노스캐롤라이나 상공을 날아가는 거대한 불덩이

지난주 노스캐롤라이나 상공에서 반짝이는 불덩어리의 놀라운 비디오가 공개되었습니다. 미국 유성학회 공유 비디오…

NASA는 감마선 폭발을 추적하는 데 도움을 주기를 원합니다.

NASA가 우주에서 가장 강력한 폭발의 기원을 추적하는 데 도움을 줄 수 있습니다.…

뱃속에 박힌 헬리콥터에서 NASA의 화성 우주선의 첫 모습을 확인하세요

NASA의 Roving Probe는 배꼽 아래에 고정 된 개방형 혁신 헬리콥터의 모습을 포착했습니다.…