Rubin Observatory will bring new capabilities to the studies of dark matter and dark energy.
cosmology
The term “Big Bang” is often badly misunderstood. In this 11-minute video, Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln tries to dispel some common misconceptions about the first moments of the cosmos.
Einstein’s equation E = mc2and the theory of the Big Bang are both generally accepted physics theories, and yet, between them, they make an unphysical prediction. They predict that matter and antimatter should be observed in equal quantities. Yet the universe is made only of matter. Why is that? In this 11-minute episode of Subatomic Stories, Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln explains what is going on.
Mysteries abound in the universe, including the universe’s ultimate fate. In this episode of Subatomic Stories, Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln talks about the observation of a new form of energy called dark energy, which will determine the future of the cosmos.
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to lead a DOE/NSF experiment that combines observatories at the South Pole and in Chile’s high desert. Fermilab plans to be a key partner on the experiment, called CMB-S4, which aims to undertake an unprecedented survey of the early universe.
Sensors for the world’s largest digital camera have snapped their first 3,200-megapixel images at SLAC. Crews at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory took the photo with an extraordinary array of imaging sensors that will become the heart and soul of the future camera of Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
We know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. In this public lecture, author and Fermilab physicist Dan Hooper examines how physicists are using the Large Hadron Collider and other experiments to re-create the conditions of the Big Bang and to address mysteries such as how our universe came to contain so much matter and so little antimatter.
There are mysteries in the cosmos that general relativity can’t explain, such as how galaxies rotate and how clusters of galaxies move. Scientists have ideas as to possible explanations. In this 13-minute episode of Subatomic Stories, Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln lists some of the most pressing mysteries.
Black holes live up to their name. They emit no light and they’re usually very far away. This makes it hard to take pictures of them, and indeed, some people claimed that they might not exist. But that’s no longer true. In episode 19 of Subatomic Stories, Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln tells us how we are quite sure that black holes are real.
Black holes seem to be timeless, lurking in the cosmos, forever eating and growing. However, astronomers believe that there is a way for black holes to shrink in size and eventually evaporate away. In episode 18 of Subatomic Stories, Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln talks about Hawking radiation, the ultimate fate of black holes.