Tracking the Evolution of Galaxies

<正>The formation and evolution of galaxies in a universe dominated by dark matter and dark energy is one of the most fascinating questions in astrophysics and generally in physics.Moreover the origin of galaxies has also attracted a lot of attention from the general public.To better understand the formation of galaxies in such a dark universe,scientists have made extensive studies using numerical simulations and analytical models.     

MPS/CAS Partner Group on Cosmology

The Partner Group does research in cosmology, focussing on the quantitative modeling of the structure and evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters, the pattern of galaxies and of larger structures.     

New Study Denies Dark Matter's Role in Dwarf Galaxies

正Astronomers from the Chinese-French international lab LIA-ORIGINS have refuted the formerly well-established proof of dark matter in dwarf galaxies.They demonstrated that star motions in dwarf galaxies,which were believed to be governed by in-situ dark matter,are actually induced by gravitational forces of the Milky Way.Since the 1970s,astronomers have been convinced that dark matter is the main component of the matter in     

Prospects of Scientii c Breakthroughs in Dark Matter Particle Detection and Related Research

<正>1.As a key factor of the structure formation of the universe,the existence of dark matter has been widely accepted"Dark matter"refers to a kind of matter in the universe which has gravitational effects,but has no direct interaction with light.It is deemed to be composed of completely new particles beyond the standard model of particle physics,however we know very little about the nature of dark matter.At the beginning of the 20th century,the"two clouds"in physics sky–aether and blackbody radiation–overturned the classical physics theory and gave birth to quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity.Similarly,dark matter,together with dark energy,are called the"two clouds"in the physics sky of the 21st     

Numerical Simulation of Cosmic Structures

At first, the research project revealed that the clustering of small-mass dark halos in the universe is far stronger than what has been predicted analytically by the well known Press-Schechter (PS) theory, giving rise to a lot of theoretical studies to revise the PS theory. In this way, a precise formula was developed to predict the clustering of halos and by applying the result, the grouping of dark matter and galaxies are predicted. For the first time in the world, the scientists in charge of this project succeeded in developing a formula for logarithmic normal distribution of the dark halo's concentrating factor.     

Dark Matter: Astrophysical Evidence and Constraints

<正>1. Introduction Modern physics and astronomy are now obscured by two "dark clouds," namely, dark matter and dark energy.All the stuff that we are familiar with in our everyday life,such as flowers, rocks, water and air, which are made of molecules or atoms, including electrons and photons,constitutes only 5% of the energy content of the universe.Even the standard model of elementary particles, the most successful ever, is only able to explain such a small     

Indirect Searches of Dark Matter in Space

Dark matter(DM) is a form of matter necessary to account for gravitational effects observed in very large scale structures such as anomalies in the rotation of galaxies and the gravitational lensing of light by galaxy clusters that cannot be accounted for by the quantity of observed matter (Bertone et al.2005).In the standard cosmology model.     

Achieving Ambitions in Space Science:Bottom-up and Top-down Approaches——An Interview with Prof.Roger-Maurice Bonnet

<正>At the time when Chinese scientists are hailing the successful launch of the DAMPE,a satellite to detect possible dark matter particles in space,and meanwhile expecting the launch of further space missions,we have the honor to invite Prof.Roger-Maurice Bonnet,former Science Director of ESA(the European Space Agency)to glve comments and advice on project management in the field of space science.     

MPS／CAS Partner Group on Radio Astronomy

The Partner Group does research on cosmic magnetic fields using radio astronomy methods. Magnetic fields are found in every astronomical object: the Earth, the Sun, planets, stars, pulsars, the Milky Way, nearby galaxies and in distant radio galaxies. The role of the magnetic fields in the cosmic universe has not been well investigated, mainly because of the difficulties of their observation. The Partner Group has executed several successful observational projects using the 100m radio telescope in Effelsberg, the Very Large Array in the USA and the Australia Telescope National Facilities to collect polarization data tracing the magnetic fields in the Milky Way. The group further plans to install a 6cm receiver system in a 25m radio telescope in Urumqi next summer to make polarization observations that give an unambiguous picture of magnetic field structures emerging from the disk of the Milky Way.     

Precision Measurement of Dust Distribution in Milky Way

正The spatial distribution of dust in a galaxy contains important information about the structure and evolution of that galaxy.Observations of extragalactic galaxies have shown that dust is abundant in disk-like galaxies,which itself also forms a remarkable disk-like structure.In general,dust disks appear radially more extended and thinner than stellar disks.For instance,the different spatial     

Studies on galaxy formation receive funding from "973" Program

A research team led by Prof.JING Yipeng from the CAS Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) recently got a shot in the arm. Its research project"large-scale structures in the universe and the formation and evolution of galaxies," has won the support from the National Basic Research Program(dubbed "973" Program).     

MPS/CAS Partner Group on Radio Astronomy

The Partner Group does research on cosmic magnetic fields using radio astronomy methods. Magnetic fields are found in every astronomical object: the Earth, the Sun,planets, stars, pulsars, the Milky Way,nearby galaxies and in distant radio galaxies. The role of the magnetic fields in the cosmic universe has not been well investigated, mainly because of the difficulties of their observation.     

Chemo-dynamical Evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy

1.Introduction Galactic Chemical Evolution(GCE) studies are to investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of the chemical abundances in the interstellar medium(ISM) in galaxies.This process is closely related to two important parameters in galaxy evolution:the initial mass function (IMF) and the star formation rate(SFR).It is also related to the primordial abundances,the nucleosynthesis and gas flows,including the radial flows,outflow and feedback     

The First Building Blocks of the Universe

The first galaxies evolved only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. But why do they have such a great variety of shapes and structures？ How did the universe evolve as a whole？ Two German-Chinese Partner Groups at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching are using observations and simulations to investigate how the early universe evolved： LI Cheng and Guinevere Kauffmann, as well as GAO Liang and Simon White.     

BEPC and Other Big Accelerators

<正>To understand the nature of "matter", scientists have to answer some very basic questions. For example, why there are so many "elementary particles"? Are they really indivisible building blocks of our cosmos? Is the cosmos following some unknown physical laws, which potentially subvert our current understanding of the whole world? How should we understand the "dark matter" in the cosmos? Could the four fundamental forces comply with any common physical law in the same framework?     

Get to Know CAS Research through the Lens of the “Annual Top 10 Science Advances” of 2018

<正>"Zhongzhong" and "Huahua," the two monkey clones produced by CAS biologists, entered the limelight on February 27, 2019, when the related research was ranked first place in the 2018 top 10 scientific advances of China.Along with the monkey clones were some other CAS projects well-known to the public, such as "Wukong," the satellite named after the monkey king, which was sent into space to detect possible dark matter particles. The winners were announced at a ceremony held by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology in Beijing.     

Mesoscience: Peering into a Once Neglected World

正To understand the physical world in which we live every day,scientists have spared no effort to delve into the details of elementary particles known to human beings,aiming to establish an overall picture based on the properties and behaviors of such building blocks;on the other hand,they have also went to all lengths to understand and predict the global development of complex systems like galaxies and climate dynamics,by averaging the details of local structures in certain     

Brain Morphology of the Zhoukoudian H.erectus Half a Million Years Ago

In the process of human evolution, how has the brain changed？ When did it happen？ Why did it happen？ These questions are some of the hottest topics in paleoanthropology today. The study of brain evolution falls into the sub-discipline of paleoneurology and is based on direct examination of the fossil record of humans and their closest hominid relatives. Unfortunately, brains are not preserved in the fossil record. The most direct evidence of ancestral brains is available, however, from endocasts.     

The Study of Supermassive Black Holes: From X-ray to Infrared

<正>All massive galaxies host supermassive black holes(SMBH)at their centers,and these objects are often found to be hidden behind large amounts of gas and dust.This circum-nuclear material is what eventually accretes onto the black hole,allowing it to grow,and its structure and evolution has been the subject of intense study in the past decade.In a recent issue of Nature Astronomy,the Chinese Academy of Sciences South America Center for     

Indirect Detection of Dark Matter Particles in Space

<正>Over the past decades, human beings greatly advanced our understanding of the universe with brilliant accomplishments. Based on the results of recent astronomical observations, a standard cosmological model combining dark matter, dark energy and cosmic inflation has been established. Figure 1 shows the composition of our universe:only 5% of the entire universe is made of known elementary particles, about