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Interstellar Matter and Cosmology

Welcome to the pages of the team Matière Interstellaire et Cosmologie (MIC) !

 

The team is made of two groups, Matière interstellaire (Interstellar Matter) and Cosmologie (Cosmology). Our research activities span a broad range of fields, from the physics of interstellar dust grains to the cosmology of the primordial universe. Details can be found on the Presentation page and on the thematic pages.

 

 

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7 years 8 months ago

By combining multi-wavelength data obtained from space with Planck and WISE, and from the ground with MegaCam on the CFHT, a team of researchers has revealed the structure of the diffuse interstellar medium over several square degrees with unprecedented details. In particular, this study reveals the statistical properties of interstellar turbulence over a wide range of scales, from 0.01 to 10 pc.

8 years 5 months ago

The stratospheric balloon carrying the PILOT instrument was launched from Timmins in Canada at 9 pm (local time) on Sunday, September 20th. The gondola, weighting more than a ton, the heaviest the CNES took in the last 25 years, was lifted by a stratospheric balloon of 800.000 m3 and reached the altitude of 39.500 m after 3 hours of ascent. After a last transfer of helium carried out just before take-off, the detectors reached nominally their operating temperature of 320 mK when the balloon reached its flight ceiling, and the scientific observations could then start.

8 years 5 months ago

To reconcile the standard cosmological model with the X-ray measured number of galaxy clusters, a team of French scientists has shown that the cluster masses should be increased by 70% compared to current estimates. These results follow the conclusions obtained by the Planck mission in 2013 from observations of galaxy clusters in the microwave domain. This huge difference is intriguing: either our understanding of the physics of galaxy clusters needs to be revised, or the standard cosmological model is incomplete.

9 years 2 days ago

Many new and enigmatic high redshift galaxies that are intensively forming stars have been discovered using ESA’s Planck and Herschel satellites . These galaxies occur in clumps – and could be the long-sought formation phase of galaxy clusters. Some appear very bright, and have been found to be gravitationally lensed galaxies. These rapidly star-forming galaxies could help solve a central problem in cosmology: how did the large scale structure of galaxies form?

9 years 1 month ago

News about Dark Matter, neutrinos, first stars and the cosmological model: the Planck collaboration, with a leading participation of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, has just published nearly twenty articles revealing many important results that will allow to better understand major chapters in the book of the Universe.

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