NASA is to launch a sounding rocket for a 15-minute exploration of one of the deep mysteries of space – the intergalactic medium. The cold, dark spaces between the stars and galaxies of the night sky aren’t empty – that’s actually where most of the matter in the Universe is. The sounding rocket is equipped with special ultraviolet optics, which it will use to measure starlight from a pair of nearby hot stars in the constellation Canis Major. Some scientists believe that this ionization is caused by intense ultraviolet starlight from star-forming galaxies and DEUCE hopes to help prove or disprove that theory. “It's a hard measurement to make, because there still is neutral hydrogen between stars that is extremely effective at absorbing the starlight at these wavelengths.

Source: Forbes October 29, 2017 14:15 UTC