TIME MACHINE

A time machine will study the origin of the Universe. A spectrometer designed by astronomers at the University Of California (USA) will allow scientists to study the first galaxies that formed in the Universe. This kind of time machine called MOSFIRE and is able to condense the light in the infrared wavelengths, allowing you to cross the cosmic dust and see very distant objects. "When we look at very distant galaxies, we do not see as they are now, but as they were when light left them. That light is now coming here," says Ian S. McLean, director of the project. "Some of the galaxies that we studied were formed 10 billion years ago.

We are looking back in time to the era of the early formation of galaxies, some of them very small and remote. This is the era that we must study if we understand large-scale structure in the universe, "says the researcher. MOSFIRE has been installed on the Keck I telescope at the WM Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea (Hawaii). The instrument will also be used to obtain detailed information on other aspects such as the formation of stars in our own galaxy or the distribution of dark matter in the Universe.