Avatar
I'm Chels. I blog about science, art, baseball, and my adventures in journalism. I'm pretty awesome.

Or, you know, owsome.

flavors.me | burning questions owsome mosaic | twitter | instagram psssst: say hello
Brookhaven’s very own “young Einstein” was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10. His name is Anže Slosar and he earned his spot on this list of the coolest and most innovative scientists in the country by using a kind of backwards astronomy. I talked with him last week about his work and found out that instead of the usual approach of measuring the light that comes from galaxies to map out the cosmos, he and his team focused instead on the gas clouds that block the light. Using one of the world’s largest digital cameras to look at the early universe, they mapped out what’s called the “Lyman-alpha forest” – irregular patterns in the spectra of light from distant quasars that are created when the light passes through hydrogen gas clouds. It’s a bit like determining the shape of someone’s hand by watching a shadow puppet show. […] “Using these quasars as backlights…we can measure the universe as it was 11 billion years ago. That’s really revolutionary. There’s no other technique that can accomplish this,” Slosar says. And from this work, we’re getting the most accurate 3-D map of the early universe. Pretty amazing, right? I love the idea of someone pioneering a new way to study the universe by literally looking at his work from a new angle. 

Brookhaven’s very own “young Einstein” was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10. His name is Anže Slosar and he earned his spot on this list of the coolest and most innovative scientists in the country by using a kind of backwards astronomy.

I talked with him last week about his work and found out that instead of the usual approach of measuring the light that comes from galaxies to map out the cosmos, he and his team focused instead on the gas clouds that block the light.

Using one of the world’s largest digital cameras to look at the early universe, they mapped out what’s called the “Lyman-alpha forest” – irregular patterns in the spectra of light from distant quasars that are created when the light passes through hydrogen gas clouds. It’s a bit like determining the shape of someone’s hand by watching a shadow puppet show. […]

“Using these quasars as backlights…we can measure the universe as it was 11 billion years ago. That’s really revolutionary. There’s no other technique that can accomplish this,” Slosar says.

And from this work, we’re getting the most accurate 3-D map of the early universe. Pretty amazing, right? I love the idea of someone pioneering a new way to study the universe by literally looking at his work from a new angle. 

113 notesShowHide

  1. whoelsebtme reblogged this from oliveyouido
  2. oliveyouido reblogged this from chels
  3. rougerothko reblogged this from brookhavenlab
  4. brookhavenlab reblogged this from chels and added:
    When you think of the word “scientist” what comes to mind? If you thought of someone in a lab coat quietly toiling away...
  5. notaparagon reblogged this from chels
  6. seymourbuhts reblogged this from chels
  7. elizabethleticia reblogged this from noobftw
  8. noobftw reblogged this from chels
  9. bapsmk reblogged this from chels
  10. a-fucking-great-url reblogged this from chels
  11. fallinglovely reblogged this from chels
  12. miradascolor-infinito reblogged this from chels
  13. questionoflifeuniverseverythings reblogged this from chels
  14. celiarrrsxd reblogged this from chels
  15. katherineravencraft reblogged this from chels
  16. rickyfarghli reblogged this from chels
  17. janjansheevibes reblogged this from chels
  18. backwardsbeauty-andlove reblogged this from chels
  19. javierid reblogged this from chels
  20. arebu reblogged this from chels
  21. holdontomybreaths reblogged this from chels
  22. chromaslide reblogged this from chels
  23. defiantlyiddy reblogged this from chels