Press Releases

An illustration contained in a purple rectangle. At the left edge of the rectangle are many red and yellow dots. Thin lines come out of the dots to the right. The lines pass through a slice of intergalactic gas shown as a purple-and-gold colored rectangle.

The Great Space Coaster: Astronomers measure the Universe’s deceleration before dark energy took over

Thanks to a new technique for measuring the three-dimensional structure of the distant Universe, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) have made the first measurement of the cosmic expansion rate just three billion years after the Big Bang.

A glowing red-orange disk surrounding a small black dot, with thick blue lines radiating out from the center. An inset on the top left shows two SDSS spectra, which appear as wavy red and blue lines.

Gone, with the Wind

The case of the missing quasar gas clouds has been solved by a worldwide team of astronomers, and the answer is blowin’ in the wind.

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Funding for SDSS has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.