# This week in Cosmology



## Brian G Turner (Jul 19, 2003)

A few interesting developments this week in the world of Cosmology.

For starters, observations using the hubble Telescope and the Keck Telescope at Mauna Kea have discovered stars between galaxies - apparently ripped from their parent homes to form small clusters in the intergalactic voids:

Astronomers find 'cosmic vagabonds'



> Astronomers have discovered clusters of stars drifting in what was thought to be the empty space between the galaxies.
> 
> The stars have been torn from their parent galaxies, and scattered into the intergalactic voids by gravity from other, passing galaxies.
> 
> ...



Astronomers also used the Hubble Telescope to develop a "mass map" of a distant galaxy, in the ongoing search to locate the presence - and eventually describe (assuming it exists!) _Dark Matter_:

'Mass map' probes dark matter



> Astronomers have mapped of one of the most massive structures in the Universe, showing how much more there is to it than glowing stars and gas.
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> The object is a distant cluster of galaxies that contains dark matter, the unknown component that comprises most of the mass of the Universe.
> 
> ...




And researchers in Cardiff and the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh have done a more extensive investigation of _cosmic dust_ - which exists in space between stars, and contributes to the blocking of various electromagnetic waves. Their results - the dust is almost certainly formed primarily from supernovae:

Origin of cosmic dust discovered



> UK astronomers say they have unlocked one of the Universe's oldest secrets - the origin of cosmic dust.
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> Cardiff University and Royal Observatory Edinburgh scientists found that some stars throw out huge quantities of this dust when they explode.
> 
> ...


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## Brian G Turner (Jul 19, 2003)

And here are a couple of the topics revisited from NewScientist magazine, with a little more information for those who want to read up further. 

Dark matter map reveals galaxy cluster's appetite

Smoking supernova solves dusty mystery 

And, also - a new story - polar mapping of high-energy neutrinos, using a special "telescope" named Amanda II 

Polar observatory reveals first neutrino sky map


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