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A golden age for astronomy
For some decades, astrophysics has undergone a technological and
conceptual revolution. Thanks to new and powerful observational
facilities, on the ground and in space, every stage of evolution of the
Universe and its components is now within reach. A new era has started, ten
years ago, with the discovery of planets around stars other than the sun,
officially launching the quest for other worlds. The presence of a black
hole in the center of our galaxy is now established, from its
gravitational effect on stars orbiting around it; we can study details of
the way black holes accrete matter, and use them to test General
Relativity. A wealth of diverse observations find the best interpretation
within the Big Bang cosmology, with a Universe totally dominated by dark
energy, a form of Einstein's cosmological constant, and by dark matter of
unknown nature.
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