This is an exciting time in the scientific study of the universe and its constituents. Over the past few decades, the discovery of the microwave background, quasars and pulsars transformed the fields of cosmology and particle astrophysics. We have learned much and been puzzled by even more.
The energy density of the universe is dominated by two unidentified components, dark matter and dark energy. In recent years, scientists have discovered that the nuclei of normal galaxies contain black holes with a million to a billion times the mass of the sun. Neutron stars have been discovered with unexpectedly high spin frequencies and magnetic fields. Giant explosions called supernovae and gamma ray bursts as powerful as 10 quintillion suns can be seen right across the universe.
Each of these discoveries brought the field of astronomy into closer contact with high-energy physics and, today, the study of the very large has joined the study of the very small.
Much of the astrophysics and cosmology research at SLAC takes place at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, an independent laboratory of Stanford University housed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and on Stanford’s main campus.
The laboratory helped build the newest major space observatory, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which is now orbiting 550 kilometers above the earth's surface and working to unveil the mysteries of the high-energy universe. Launched into orbit in June 2008, the telescope studies the most energetic processes in the universe, beyond the reach of Earth-bound accelerator facilities.
SLAC is also leading the R&D effort for the 3.2 gigapixel camera planned for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will track the evolution of the universe, and provide important clues to the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
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