This lecture was delivered by Rashid Sunyaev, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching (Germany) in March 2013. In his talk, Sunyaev explores how galaxy clusters —the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe— interact with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to produce detectable signals in the millimeter and centimeter wavebands. He explains the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, whereby hot electrons within these clusters distort the CMB spectrum, generating signatures that are independent of distance or redshift. Using recent observations from Planck, SPT, and ACT, the lecture shows how these findings allow astronomers to catalog clusters across cosmic time and make progress in observational cosmology, from estimating the mass distribution in the universe to probing the structural evolution of the cosmos.
This lecture is part of the astrophysics s
This lecture was delivered by Rashid Sunyaev, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching (Germany) in March 2013. In his talk, Sunyaev explores how galaxy clusters —the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe— interact with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to produce detectable signals in the millimeter and centimeter wavebands. He explains the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, whereby hot electrons within these clusters distort the CMB spectrum, generating signatures that are independent of distance or redshift. Using recent observations from Planck, SPT, and ACT, the lecture shows how these findings allow astronomers to catalog clusters across cosmic time and make progress in observational cosmology, from estimating the mass distribution in the universe to probing the structural evolution of the cosmos.
This lecture is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’, tackles the fundamental questions in contemporary astrophysics. How many planets similar to Earth are orbiting other stars? The lectures in the second edition explore questions such as the search for life in other worlds, the expansion of the universe, neutron stars, and clusters of galaxies.
