Scientists have a new tool for mapping the universe's perplexing acceleration.
A Canadian telescope designed to chart the distribution of hydrogen gas across the ancient universe has proved it can do so using only its own data for the first time, without the help of other telescopes. The results took seven years to prove, but the payoff could be huge.
According to the authors of a new study published Monday (Sept. 28) in The Astrophysical Journal, the telescope could give scientists a new, cost-effective way to study dark energy, the poorly understood force that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate over time.
"Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and the raw material from which stars form," study co-author Arnab Chakraborty, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, said in a statement<...
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