Cosmology and structure formation in the Universe
Map of the cosmic microwave background observed by the WMAP satellite. (Source: NASA/WMAP)
The study of the large-scale structures of the Universe has developed dramatically over the past two decades, since the discovery of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background by the COBE satellite team in 1992 (2006 Nobel Physics Prize). This has made our knowledge of the initial conditions of the Universe accurate enough to consider studying its dynamic evolution over the 13 to 14 billion years of its existence. In the course of this evolution, small primordial density fluctuations grew under the effect of gravitational instability and formed the galaxies and galactic clusters that we observe today.
last update : 10-18 00:00:00-2005 (605)
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Quantification of the star-formation and black-hole growth rate in galaxies
Until the middle of the last decade, mergers of galaxies and the star formation episodes triggered by these phenomena had been considered as a major, even dominant, ... More » |
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29-01-2011
Clusters and superclusters billions of light-years away
An international team, including scientists from the Astrophysics Department-AIM and the Particle Physics Department of CEA-Irfu, has just used the Planck satellite to discover galaxy clusters with characteristics that were previously unknown. These ... More » |
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24-03-2010
High resolution mapping of the first light in the Universe
Following its launch on 14 May 2009, the Planck satellite [1] has been continually observing the celestial vault and has mapped the entire sky since 13 August to obtain the first very high resolution image of the dawn of the universe. The Planck ... More » |
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20-05-2010
Promising scientific results for the largest space telescope
One year on from the launch of the Herschel European satellite, the European Space Agency (ESA) is carrying out an initial scientific assessment of the mission, starting with the first symposium of Herschel scientific results, held from 4th to ... More » |
Experiments
