In the Media

A selection of media highlights since the Centre opened in 2002.

Revealing the Universe’s cosmic ripples 

Our cosmologists have shown how the present pattern of galaxies in the cosmos grew from tiny fluctuations in the density of matter just after the Big Bang. The 2sFGRS (2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey) provided the missing link that directly relates modern galaxies like our own Milky Way to the Big Bang that created our Universe 14 thousand million years ago.  

Featured media includes: BBC News, Science Daily, Phys.org, The Northern Echo, The Chronicle.

Dark matter’s “cosmic scaffold” mapped 

We helped to map the cosmic "scaffold" of dark matter upon which stars and galaxies are assembled. Researchers used 1,000 hours of Hubble Space Telescope observations to show that the distribution of galaxies follows the distribution of dark matter. 

Featured media includes: BBC News.

Simulation could help solve mystery of dark matter

Working with our partners in the international Virgo Consortium, we used a massive computer simulation showing the evolution of a galaxy like the Milky Way to “see” gamma-rays given off by dark matter. 

The Aquarius Project showed how haloes - structures surrounding galaxies which contain a trillion times the mass of the Sun - grew through a series of violent collisions and mergers between smaller clumps of dark matter that came from the Big Bang. 

Featured media includes: Reuters, NBC, BD News 24, Space.com.

Cosmologists “see” the cosmic dawn 

We used a computer simulation to predict what the very early Universe would have appeared like 500 million years after the Big Bang. The images produced show the “Cosmic Dawn” - the formation of the first big galaxies in the Universe. 

Featured media includes: BBC News, Universe Today, Space.com, Astronomy Now, Science Daily.

Dwarf galaxies suggest dark matter theory may be incomplete

Working with the Virgo Consortium, we produced data suggesting that our understanding of the composition of the Universe  may be incomplete. The team created computer simulations to visualise how the dwarf galaxies formed, using their assumptions about Cold Dark Matter and found that the final results of these simulations did not match what we observe as well as expected. A different assumption about the identity of the dark matter may be required. 

Featured media includes: BBC News.

Discovering the Higgs boson

Our particle physicists are providing the theory and analysis behind a number of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012. Evidence that the Higgs boson – which helps explain why elementary particles (the smallest building blocks of nature) have mass - exists is seen as a “triumph” for particle physics. 

Featured media includes: The Guardian, Daily Mail, MyScience, ITV,  The Northern Echo, Phys.org, The Conversation.

Supercomputer simulations trace Moon’s early origins

We have used supercomputer simulations to see how the Moon might have formed following a huge collision involving the early Earth 4.5 billion years ago. 

Featured media includes Daily Mail, LBC, Daily Express, AOL, Metro, Sky News, The Hindu, The Guardian, UKRI, Space.com, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, India Today. 

Applying astronomy to cancer research

You might not think that studying the universe could benefit research into serious illnesses like cancer, but our researchers have joined forces with cancer researchers to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients using advanced statistical techniques developed for cosmology. 

Featured media includes: The Times, Palatinate.

Gigantic helium balloon launches space telescope

We are part of an international team building a new kind of telescope. It weighs as much as a car and is transported to the edge of space by a helium balloon the size of a football stadium. The Superpressure balloon-Borne Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) will be used to measure the properties of dark matter. 

Featured media includes: The European Times, BBC Newsround, Universe Today, The Guardian, Science.

Creating the most detailed map of the Universe

We are part of an international team that has helped create the most detailed ever 3-D map of the universe. Durham is a key partner in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), helped design and build the new telescope instrument, and is using supercomputer simulations to help interpret the data. 

Featured media includes: Daily Mail, ITV, BBC, The Independent, Yahoo!, Cosmos Magazine, Morning Express (India), Persia Digest, New Scientist, The Northern Echo. 

Scientists unveil most accurate virtual representation of the Universe

We have helped produce the largest and most accurate supercomputer simulation to date of our local patch of the Universe. SIBELIUS-DARK is part of the “Simulations Beyond the Local Universe” (SIBELIUS) project and is the largest and most comprehensive ‘constrained realisation’ simulation to date – covering a volume up to 600 million lightyears from Earth. 

Featured media includes: Sky News, Yahoo!, Metro, Daily Mail, Universe Today, Evening Standard, The Independent, Bloomberg, Royal Astronomical Society, WIRED.

Durham plays key role in James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – which Durham helped to develop and engineer – has captured its first images. Our scientists will be among the first to observe the cosmos using the JWST as they hunt for dark matter and investigate early galaxy formation. 

Featured media includes: New Scientist, The Times, Space.com, The Northern Echo, Kauai Now.