A team of scientists has compiled the most robust chart of the universe\u2019s temperature ever recorded.<\/p>\n
The researchers used vast amounts of observational data collected by the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) Euclid and Herschel space telescopes. Euclid, a telescope designed to catalog the dark universe, is compiling the largest-ever map of the cosmos.<\/p>\n
The team leveraged this treasure trove of cosmic information to investigate the rate at which our universe is cooling. As expected, they found that the cosmos is drifting ever farther apart and that star formation has likely passed its peak.<\/p>\n
Surveying the stardust of 2 million galaxies<\/p>\n
For their study, the team analyzed the heat emitted by stardust in over 2 million galaxies. They found subtle but clear downward trends, indicating that the universe is slowly cooling and, effectively, dying. Star formation rates, for example, have slowed over the past 10 billion years. The team of scientists has submitted their paper<\/a> to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. It is available now on the preprint server arXiv.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Universe will just get colder and deader from now on,\u201d Dr. Douglas Scott, a\u00a0cosmologist at the University of British Columbia, and author of the paper, explained in a press statement<\/a>. \u201cThe amount of dust in galaxies and their dust temperatures have been decreasing for billions of years, which means we\u2019re past the epoch of maximum star formation.\u201d<\/p>\n The team looked at 2.6 million galaxies cataloged from Euclid\u2019s first data release. They compared these with archival observations from ESA\u2019s Herschel Space Observatory, which was active from 2009 to 2013.<\/p>\n Euclid records visible and near-infrared light, while Herschel\u2019s instruments detected far-infrared light. By combining these datasets, the team was able to study the heat emitted by stardust across a large range of wavelengths.<\/p>\n \u201cBy combining the data and having such a huge sample of galaxies \u2026 we can produce the most statistically robust calculations to date,\u201d lead study author\u00a0Ryley Hill, a postdoctoral research fellow at UBC, explained in the statement.<\/p>\n Data on the demise of the universe<\/p>\n