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[Science!] Biggest Thing Ever

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by rimrocker, Jan 15, 2013.

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rimrocker Member

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It's so big, even your momma could squeeze into it.

Biggest Thing in Universe Found—Defies Scientific Theory
Quasar cluster is "challenge to our current understanding," astronomer says.

Andrew Fazekas
for National Geographic News

Talk about a whopper—astronomers have discovered a structure in the universe so large that modern cosmological theory says it should not exist, a new study says. (Also see "Giant 'Blob' Is Largest Thing in Universe [2006].")

Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international team of researchers has discovered a record-breaking cluster of quasars—young active galaxies—stretching four billion light-years across.

"This discovery was very much a surprise, since it does break the cosmological record as the largest structure in the known universe," said study leader Roger Clowes, an astronomer at University of Central Lancashire in England.

For comparison, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just a hundred thousand light-years across, while the local supercluster of galaxies in which it's located, the Virgo Cluster, is only a hundred million light-years wide.

Giant Quasar a Head-Scratcher

Astronomers have known for years that quasars can form immense clusters that stretch to more than 700 million light-years across, said Clowes. But the epic size of this group of 73 quasars, sitting about 9 billion light-years away, has left them scratching their heads.

That's because current astrophysical models appear to show that the upper size limit for cosmic structures should be no more than 1.2 billion light-years.

"So this represents a challenge to our current understanding and now creates a mystery—rather than solves one," Clowes said. (Also see "Dark Galaxies Discovered—May Be Cosmic 'Missing Links.'")

The titanic structure, known simply as the Large Quasar Group (LQG), also appears to break the rules of a widely accepted cosmological principle, which says that the universe would look pretty much uniform when observed at the largest scales.

"It could mean that our mathematical description of the universe has been oversimplified—and that would represent a serious difficulty and a serious increase in complexity," Clowes said.

Decoding Early-Galaxy Evolution

Significant not only for its record-breaking size, the massive structure could possibly shed light on the evolution of galaxies like our own Milky Way. Quasars, which pump out powerful jets of energy, are among the brightest and most energetic objects from when the universe was still young. They represent an early, but brief, stage in the evolution of most galaxies. (See "Earliest Known Galaxies Spied in Deep Hubble Picture.")

One theory holds that this type of colossal collection of quasars may be precursors to galaxy superclusters in the modern universe—but the exact nature of their connection is still a mystery.

The discovery, a prime target for computer modeling, also needs to be mapped out more thoroughly with telescopes, said Gerard Williger, an astronomer at the University of Louisville in Kentucky not connected with the study.

"This structure is bigger than we expect based on the shockwaves formed in the universe after the big bang," said Williger.

"There is very likely some mechanism [that] is turning on quasars over a large scale like this—and in a short time—which could relate to some condition in the early universe."

Th quasar study was published this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ggest-thing-universe-science-space-evolution/
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#1 rimrocker, Jan 15, 2013

rocketsjudoka Member

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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JWVshkVF0SY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

#2 rocketsjudoka, Jan 15, 2013

1 person likes this.
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#3 CourtOfDreams, Jan 15, 2013
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Great, now let's dump Royce there.

#4 Jontro, Jan 15, 2013
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Jontro said: ↑

Great, now let's dump Royce there.
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Dont think there are any buses willing to go there...

#5 Salvy, Jan 15, 2013
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rocketsjudoka said: ↑

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JWVshkVF0SY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Can't believe I had never seen that before. Very Nice! rep

#6 Win, Jan 15, 2013
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4 billion light years... I'm sorry, I know we have some great technology, but how the eff can they possibly guess that?

#7 micks96, Jan 15, 2013

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micks96 said: ↑

4 billion light years... I'm sorry, I know we have some great technology, but how the eff can they possibly guess that?
Click to expand...

Generally the use the Cepheid Variable.

EDIT - Sorry forgot the link. The Physics and Space subreddits are awesome, and NASA AMA's too.
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/MilkyWay/cepheid.html

#8 Svpernaut, Jan 15, 2013
larsv8 Member

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Interesting, but hard to really talk about.

I mean...wow....thats big.

#9 larsv8, Jan 16, 2013
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rimrocker said: ↑

It's so big,
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That's what SHE said! :grin:

#10 SwoLy-D, Jan 16, 2013
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Not really surprising, we don't know jack about the Universe and who says our "Universe" is the only structure and not part of something bigger, possibly a Universe Cluster, etc.?

#11 Yung-T, Jan 16, 2013
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Stop aiming your telescope at my dick.

#12 Dei, Jan 16, 2013

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Dei said: ↑

Stop aiming your telescope at my dick.
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More like your imagination.

#13 Svpernaut, Jan 16, 2013

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SwoLy-D said: ↑

That's what SHE said! :grin:
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She never said that!!!!

#14 tomato, Jan 16, 2013
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Dei said: ↑

Stop aiming your telescope at my dick.
Click to expand...

#15 Rodman23, Jan 16, 2013
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Salvy said: ↑

Dont think there are any buses willing to go there...
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Yes. Yes there is.

#16 Jontro, Jan 16, 2013
Xerobull ...and I'm all out of bubblegum

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CourtOfDreams said: ↑

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Aw man, that's not right. I was eating oatmeal.

#17 Xerobull, Jan 16, 2013
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Is it Galactus?

#18 Haymitch, Jan 16, 2013

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Haymitch said: ↑

Is it Galactus?
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Aw schieett, Silver Surfer is coming for us!

#19 Jontro, Jan 16, 2013
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tomato said: ↑

She never said that!!!!
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Dang. I'm so sorry, man.

Join me in the quest to have her say that ALL THE TIME! *p*rn experiment thread... as your ClutchFan brother, I'd like to invite you.

She's been saying it to me, though.

#20 SwoLy-D, Jan 16, 2013

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