the universe

It sparked an immensely powerful shock akin to a "sonic boom from a jet fighter" -- the likes of which are among the most striking phenomena in the Universe.

This cutting-edge, next generation science facility will not only reveal how our Milky Way galaxy was built up over billions of years, but also offer new insights into millions of other galaxies across the Universe.

Having worked with some of the biggest, brightest stars in the universe — Julia, Meryl and Nicole, to name three recognizable by their first names — Martindale has been adjacent to megawatt fame but harbors absolutely no envy.

"I asked God, or the universe, 'Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be shut,'" she says.

Axions also fall neatly out of string theory, a hypothesis about the underlying geometry of the universe, and might be able to unify gravity, which explains interactions on cosmic scales, with the theory of quantum mechanics, which describes the infinitesimal.