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Next year we As the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile begins operations, we will begin to create our most detailed visible sky map to date.The information it collects will far exceed previous data sets and is expected to be Astrophysics.
The first star map dates back to Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer and mathematician around 129 BC. Although there is no record of his maps today, the work he did marked the beginning of a long and important tradition. In 1989, the European Space Agency launched a high-precision parallax collection satellite (Hipparcos), named after him. In three years of operation, it can measure the brightness, position and motion of more than 110,000 stars in our Milky Way galaxy with high accuracy. The ESA follow-up mission, Gaia, was launched 24 years later and has increased this number to 2 billion, but its limited scale means that it can only peek into the depths of the universe. Next year, a new land-based observatory named after the pioneer of 20th-century astrophysicist Vera Rubin will begin operation, and it will have the ability to see farther.
This is because the observatory will be equipped with a large mirror with a diameter of 8.4 meters, which will help us not only detect too dark objects that Gaia cannot see in the Milky Way, but also detect the faint light that reaches us from the galaxy, as far as billions. Light years away. Its large field of view means it can image the entire sky above it every few days, after which it will start again. It will continue to do this for 10 years, creating a series of maps to show the movement of these galaxies in space and time.
These data will help us understand more about the dark energy that causes the universe to expand expansion At a higher speed. It will also be used to detect the properties of dark matter. In the 1970s, Rubin provided the first observational evidence that the universe is far more than just luminous objects that we can see. By mapping the positions and movements of the stars on the outer edges of the galaxy, she showed that they revolve around the center of the galaxy so fast that there is no extra invisible matter that provides the necessary extra gravity to keep them in orbit. By doing so, she proved the existence of the mysterious substance called dark matter.
Dark matter accounts for about 85% of all matter in the universe-in 2022, the observatory named after Rubin will help us understand how this matter affects the formation and evolution of galaxies, and even the shape of the universe itself.
Get more experts’ predictions for the coming year. The wired world in 2022 With intelligence and insights that need to be known from the brightest minds in the WIRED network.It’s now available on newsstands as Digital downloadOr you can Order your copy online.
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