Scientists have been busy unraveling the mysteries of the universe for decades now. Recently, they shared the results of their hard work by introducing a comprehensive analysis of the largest three-dimensional map of the universe ever created. The new results come from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), a Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) collaboration of more than 100 astrophysicists worldwide.
More info: sdss.org
Researchers have figured out how the universe looked soon after the Big Bang and are aware of its expansion over the last few billion years; however, the gap in the middle 11 billion years has been a mystery for a long time.
After 5 years of tremendous effort, scientists have managed to fill this mysterious, yet significant gap.
“We know both the ancient history of the Universe and its recent expansion history fairly well, but there’s a troublesome gap in the middle 11 billion years. For five years, we have worked to fill in that gap, and we are using that information to provide some of the most substantial advances in cosmology in the last decade," said cosmologist Kyle Dawson of the University of Utah, announcing the news.
During the most recent studies, scientists have managed to fill in missing details of the story of the expansion of the universe. The new map encompasses 11 billion years (out of 13.8 billion) of the universe's history.
“Taken together, detailed analyses of the eBOSS map and the earlier SDSS experiments have now provided the most accurate expansion history measurements over the widest-ever range of cosmic time,” says Will Percival of the University of Waterloo, eBOSS’s Survey Scientist.