Light From Outside Our Galaxy Much Brighter Than Expected
New research has found that the light emitted by stars outside our galaxy is significantly brighter than previously thought.
Scientists at RIT lead a study utilizing data collected by LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager) on NASA’s New Horizons mission.
Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology have conducted a study with new measurements that show the light emitted by stars outside our galaxy is two to three times brighter than the light from known populations of galaxies. These findings challenge previous assumptions about the number and environment of stars in the universe. The results of the study have been accepted for publication in The
“We see more light than we should see based on the populations of galaxies that we understand to exist and how much light we estimate they should produce,” said Teresa Symons ’22 Ph.D. (astrophysical sciences and technology), who led the study for her dissertation and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Irvine. “Determining what is producing that light could change our fundamental understanding of how the universe formed over time.”
Earlier this year, an independent team of scientists reported the COB was twice as large as originally believed in
“This has gotten to the point where it’s an actual mystery that needs to be solved,” said Zemcov, a research professor at RIT’s Center for Detectors and School of Physics and Astronomy. “I hope that some of the experiments we’re involved in here at RIT including CIBER-2 and SPHEREx can help us resolve the discrepancy.”
Reference: “A Measurement of the Cosmic Optical Background and Diffuse Galactic Light Scaling from the R < 50 AU New Horizons-LORRI Data” by Teresa Symons, Michael Zemcov, Asantha Cooray, Carey Lisse, Andrew R. Poppe, 14 December 2022, ArXiv.
DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2212.07449
Read More: Light From Outside Our Galaxy Much Brighter Than Expected