Astronomers in Edinburgh are tracing a chain of cause and effect that runs from the birth of the universe to the formation of planets and the conditions for life. The central problem is that our best theories of the cosmos rely on two invisible entities—dark matter and dark energy—whose nature remains unknown. Without understanding them, we cannot explain why the universe expands the way it does or how galaxies and stars first formed. The researchers will use ground-based telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and computer simulations to test whether Einstein’s theory of gravity holds on cosmic scales, to watch gas clump into stars, and to dissect the Milky Way star by star. They will also study how planets form around other stars and how life might survive in space. This is fundamental science with no immediate practical application. But similar curiosity-driven work on gravity and quantum mechanics has in the past led to GPS, satellite communications, and medical imaging. A clearer picture of how the universe works could, over decades, reshape the technologies we rely on without thinking.
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An astonishing feature of modern astrophysical research is that we have in principle a chain of explanation that stretches from processes on cosmological scales of billions of light years, down to the creation of stars, planets around the stars and life on the planets. In a sense, this process is almost a closed loop: the early universe was once of subnuclear scale, so that quantum mechanical uncertainty is bound to seed fluctuations in density, which eventually collapse under gravity to make astronomical structures. This is the same physics of the very small that governs the formation of the atoms out of which we are all made. But unanswered questions abound at all stages of this process. Our theories of the early universe and explanations of its current expansion rest on the concept that empty space can have weight: the so-called "dark energy". We need to study its properties and understand its origin. In so doing, we often assume that Einstein's relativity describes gravity correctly, but can we test this? If the standard theory is correct, dark matter is required, and we are driven to follow the processes by which it clumps, and by which the gas within these clumps evolves, eventally forming stars. New large telescopes on the ground, together with the Hubble Space Telescope, allow us to see this process in action and compare with computer simulations. Nearer to home, we can dissect galaxies such as our own Milky Way into individual stars, for the most detailed view of how they were assembled. And finally we can study how planets arise around these stars, both from new instruments that can measure the presence of "exoplanets" and by computer simulations of how they may be created. Finally, one can ask how life might arise in these early planetary systems, and how it can survive the hostile conditions of outer space. Research in astronomy in Edinburgh attacks all these connected questions. Progress is rapid, and our understanding evolves rapidly. Major progress, even if not final answers, can be expected within a few years. This is an exciting time for our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
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