Marcelle Soares Santos Researches Cosmic Super Formula

(CONNECT) A team at the University of Zurich led by Marcelle Soares-Santos is developing a research method to help researchers learn more about cosmic events. This knowledge should help to uncover the secret of dark energy, the invisible force that has been continuously expanding the universe since the Big Bang 14 billion years ago.

However, dark energy can only be detected indirectly. "Cosmic events such as the collision of two stars, or rather the light and waves that this triggers, provide clues," the astrophysics professor is quoted as saying in an article published by her university. That's why her group is working on a kind of super formula. It is intended to create the basis for a 3D map that simulates the distances, luminances, brightness levels and colors of cosmological objects and phenomena.

To generate these, many fragments of information - vibrations, signals, images and waves received from the universe - are put together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, the article explains. "A process like this is enormously complex and takes time," says Soares-Santos. "Only when it works on a small scale can you even begin to tackle the implementation on a large scale." However, physics can still only identify around 5 percent of the matter in space - stars, galaxies and planets - using the elementary particles, electrons and nuclear particles known to it. ce/mm