Stony Brook scientists on team capturing ‘baby pictures’ of the Universe’s cosmic light with advanced telescope
A Stony Brook University professor and a trio of grad students took part in a scientific collaboration that produced the clearest, most precise images of the universe’s infancy, including the latest data on its age and ongoing expansion.
SBU astrophysicist Neelima Sehgal and her team analyzed data collected by a telescope that was stationed in the Chilean Andes as part of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration. Over five years, the international group of 160 people at 65 institutions observed through a highly sensitive telescope the “cosmic microwave background radiation” that permeates the universe — or “afterglow” light after the Big Bang — that has traveled billions of years, according to a news release.
The images released Tuesday show the oldest light in the universe, with the most precise measurements to date of the universe’s early properties, including its density, expansion and age. The group’s latest data confirms the universe is 13.8 billion years old, with an uncertainty of only 0.1%, according to the release.
The images show light seen around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, revealing ancient clouds of gases that form planets and galaxies. The universe was too hot during its first few hundreds of thousands of years for light to be visible. Considering the universe is pushing 14 billion years old, the images ACT produced are essentially “hours-old baby pictures of the cosmos,” the release said.
“These images have allowed us to answer with high precision questions such as what is the Universe made of, how big is it … and what is its eventual fate,” Sehgal said in an email exchange with Newsday. She added that her work with the ACT project began more than 20 years ago when she was a PhD student.
The new data confirms what scientists regard as the standard model of the universe, or a set of parameters that describes its age, geometry and composition of ordinary matter and dark matter among other characteristics, Sehgal said.
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope had “five times the resolution … and greater sensitivity” than other telescopes that viewed CMB throughout the 21st century, according to Sigurd Naess, a researcher at the University of Oslo and a lead author on a paper related to the project. The telescope allowed researchers to produce an image that “detailed movement of the hydrogen and helium gas in the cosmic infancy” that go on to form galaxies, according to the ACT release.
“We are seeing the first steps toward making the earliest stars and galaxies,” Suzanne Staggs, the director of ACT and the Henry deWolf Smyth Professor of Physics at Princeton University, said in the release.
The new data released by the collaboration has not yet been peer reviewed, according to the release, but has been presented at the annual conference of the Maryland-based American Physical Society, an international nonprofit established in 1899.
“Our data indicates that the Universe will expand forever, and at an accelerating rate,” said Sehgal, who analyzed data alongside current and former Stony Brook University physics and astronomy graduate students Mathew Madhavacheril, Dongwon Han and Amanda MacInnis.
The new data will “absolutely” spark additional study into the universe’s accelerated rate of expansion over time, said Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, the curator and a professor with the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, home to the Hayden Planetarium.
“Science typically moves forward in incremental steps that lead to breakthroughs,” he added. “This is one of those incremental steps that focuses attention on something that is going to require a breakthrough to solve.”
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope was decommissioned after the five-year observation period and donated to the Ckoirama Observatory of the Astronomy Center at Chile’s University of Antofagasta in 2024, according to the ACT website. But in its place in the Andes is the new Simons Observatory, another collaboration that includes many ACT participants, including Stony Brook, Sehgal said.
“The Simons Observatory will have even greater sensitivity than ACT,” Sehgal said. Beyond her forthcoming work with this new facility, she added that there will be even newer technology and additional research efforts that “will open a whole new window on the Universe.”
A Stony Brook University professor and a trio of grad students took part in a scientific collaboration that produced the clearest, most precise images of the universe’s infancy, including the latest data on its age and ongoing expansion.
SBU astrophysicist Neelima Sehgal and her team analyzed data collected by a telescope that was stationed in the Chilean Andes as part of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration. Over five years, the international group of 160 people at 65 institutions observed through a highly sensitive telescope the “cosmic microwave background radiation” that permeates the universe — or “afterglow” light after the Big Bang — that has traveled billions of years, according to a news release.
The images released Tuesday show the oldest light in the universe, with the most precise measurements to date of the universe’s early properties, including its density, expansion and age. The group’s latest data confirms the universe is 13.8 billion years old, with an uncertainty of only 0.1%, according to the release.
The images show light seen around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, revealing ancient clouds of gases that form planets and galaxies. The universe was too hot during its first few hundreds of thousands of years for light to be visible. Considering the universe is pushing 14 billion years old, the images ACT produced are essentially “hours-old baby pictures of the cosmos,” the release said.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Astrophysicist Neelima Sehgal of Stony Brook University and three graduate students were among the 160 participants in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration in the Andes Mountains of Chile.
- Sehgal and her team analyzed data from a telescope that provided insight into when the Universe was formed and its ongoing expansion.
- The collaboration produced what is said is the universe’s clearest “baby picture,” light seen around 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
“These images have allowed us to answer with high precision questions such as what is the Universe made of, how big is it … and what is its eventual fate,” Sehgal said in an email exchange with Newsday. She added that her work with the ACT project began more than 20 years ago when she was a PhD student.
The new data confirms what scientists regard as the standard model of the universe, or a set of parameters that describes its age, geometry and composition of ordinary matter and dark matter among other characteristics, Sehgal said.
This image reveals the motion of ancient gases in the universe, pulled by gravity as galaxies were formed.. Credit: ESA/Planck Collaboration
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope had “five times the resolution … and greater sensitivity” than other telescopes that viewed CMB throughout the 21st century, according to Sigurd Naess, a researcher at the University of Oslo and a lead author on a paper related to the project. The telescope allowed researchers to produce an image that “detailed movement of the hydrogen and helium gas in the cosmic infancy” that go on to form galaxies, according to the ACT release.
“We are seeing the first steps toward making the earliest stars and galaxies,” Suzanne Staggs, the director of ACT and the Henry deWolf Smyth Professor of Physics at Princeton University, said in the release.
The new data released by the collaboration has not yet been peer reviewed, according to the release, but has been presented at the annual conference of the Maryland-based American Physical Society, an international nonprofit established in 1899.
“Our data indicates that the Universe will expand forever, and at an accelerating rate,” said Sehgal, who analyzed data alongside current and former Stony Brook University physics and astronomy graduate students Mathew Madhavacheril, Dongwon Han and Amanda MacInnis.
Neelima Sehgal, a member of the ACT Collaboration. Credit: Stony Brook University/John Griffin
The new data will “absolutely” spark additional study into the universe’s accelerated rate of expansion over time, said Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, the curator and a professor with the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, home to the Hayden Planetarium.
“Science typically moves forward in incremental steps that lead to breakthroughs,” he added. “This is one of those incremental steps that focuses attention on something that is going to require a breakthrough to solve.”
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope was decommissioned after the five-year observation period and donated to the Ckoirama Observatory of the Astronomy Center at Chile’s University of Antofagasta in 2024, according to the ACT website. But in its place in the Andes is the new Simons Observatory, another collaboration that includes many ACT participants, including Stony Brook, Sehgal said.
“The Simons Observatory will have even greater sensitivity than ACT,” Sehgal said. Beyond her forthcoming work with this new facility, she added that there will be even newer technology and additional research efforts that “will open a whole new window on the Universe.”
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