London, July 22 (ANI): The world's largest steerable telescope - Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope of the National Science Foundation - will provide scientists with valuable clues about the nature of the mysterious 'dark energy' believed to constitute nearly three-fourths of the universe's mass and energy.
It will provide them with a new tool for mapping the universe too.
The researchers developed a way to measure sound wave imprints left on galaxies by observing the radio emission of hydrogen gas. This gave them a picture of the "cosmic web" of large-scale structure.
This technique is called intensity mapping and when applied to greater areas of the universe, could reveal how such a large-scale structure has changed over the last few billion years, giving insight into which theory of dark energy is the most accurate.
To address inherent observational challenges, the astronomers developed new techniques that removed both man-made radio interference and radio emission from more-nearby astronomical sources, to leave the extremely faint radio waves coming from the very distant hydrogen gas.
The approach holds promise for both astrophysical and cosmological studies.
The study is published in Nature's July 22 issue. (ANI)
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