Ever wondered how astronomers measure the temperature of distant objects in the Universe?
Recently an international team, led by researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, found evidence that the Universe broke its rising ‘fever’ about 11 billion years ago. To find this out, they measured the temperature of the Universe when it was 3 to 4 billion years old by studying the gas in between galaxies.
But since scientists can’t travel to these far off places with a thermometer, how did they do it? Swinburne’s Dr Alan Duffy explains what temperature is, and how we can measure it in space from here on earth.
