Posted on 03/24/2010 12:23:32 PM PDT by decimon
PARIS (AFP) Astronomers may have underestimated the tally of galaxies in some parts of the Universe by as much as 90 percent, according to a study reported on Wednesday in Nature, the weekly British science journal.
Surveys of the cosmos are based on a signature of ultraviolet light that turns out to be a poor indicator of what's out there, its authors say.
In the case of very distant, old galaxies, the telltale light may not reach Earth as it is blocked by interstellar clouds of dust and gas -- and, as a result, these galaxies are missed by the map-makers.
"Astronomers always knew they were missing some fraction of the galaxies... but for the first time we now have a measurement. The number of missed galaxies is substantial," said Matthew Hayes of the University of Geneva's observatory, who led the investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
O The Universe is supposedly around 13-14 Billion years old.
O Yet some atomic particles have life-spans measured in nano-seconds.
O Let's be realistic. Humans appear at this point in time yet it seems extremely unlikely that they can survive 10,000; 100,000, 1,000,000 years into the future. Even if humans could adapt and survive the current theory sees the universe continuing for another trillion years until it is a cold, dark, lifeless void. Why? O Am I supposed to be a 'soul' waiting in heaven for a trillion years or for eternity for some purpose? Why? It doesn't make sense.
O If an atomic particle only survives for a nano-second, and we survive for perhaps 100 years, why does the universe survive for another trillion? What's the point of a God creating a timeline of existence in which we are only a nano-second in the history of the universe? Sorry, I just don't get it.
Billions and billions and BILLIONS!
Even if you believe in the Biblical God, there's no particular requirement to believe he created the universe just for earthlings.
Where is it written he's prohibited from creating other beings that are also in his image? In the future, or possibly already. Just not here. As this article points out, the universe is a very big place.
Hey, I see an orange UFO in that.
So what, there is still no there there in Oakland!
Not necessarily, dark matter holds galaxies together, dark energy is used to explain evidence of the accelerating universal expansion. If there is now more matter than we thought, dark energy must be larger than previously known.
‘just surmising, I’m not paid for this.
bump
Yes. There's no profit for them in not searching for the truth . . . up to now.
Yes. The most common phrase, I would think.
They're smart enough, I think. But, they seem to think that gives them the right, indeed the obligation, to jerk us around and run our lives. That's when they are at their most buffoonish. (IMHO)
Astronomers may have underestimated the tally of galaxies in some parts of the Universe by as much as 90 percentOnly 90 percent? Why's everybody got their knickers in a twist? ;')
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Don't know.
But, people lived on an island in the Bay of Bengal that was only 1 inch above sea level?
My head just exploded ... again.
Astronomical numbers are beyond comprehension. Mine, anyway.
I figure that if I could walk to the stars, and I started walking now, in a million years...I still wouldn't be anywhere. ;-)
Buy stock in the “International Star Registry”
>>>LOL, unless its something a liberal skimmer can make $$ off of then its settled. Science in this country is mostly run by buffoons who believe themselves to be smart. I love it when theyre force to reassess their dogma.
Such an luddite attitude here, and THEY’RE the buffoons ? You cannot reassess dogma, as dogma is correct without regard to facts. Dogma cannot be science for that reason. btw, the last exceptionally rich scientist was Thomas Edison. I hope it’s ok with you that he earned his fortune.
And I too love it when honest science reassesses it’s theories. Since it means they have new facts they now can plug in to the old theories, and refute, confirm, or enhance the old conclusions. And that’s what science is.
>>>My wife and I had that exact conversation a few years back when cosmologists first started the whole “dark matter” craze. “How sure are they that they are seeing everything there is to see? Every time they think they have found the edge, they find a way to look further and find more ‘there’ out there.”
Absolutely true but with a proviso. I was posting on another thread just a night or two ago of theories that there may be multiples of the total of known galaxies laying outside our detection horizon. That however doesn’t YET eliminate the possibility of dark matter though as the mechanism for the ongoing expansion of space. These theoretical unobserved galaxies still must be located and measured. Then there is the possibility both may co-exist as factors.
There is a lot of math and astronomy yet to do here. Lots of doorknobs yet to try to open.
‘uch an luddite attitude here, and THEYRE the buffoons ? You cannot reassess dogma, as dogma is correct without regard to facts. Dogma cannot be science for that reason. btw, the last exceptionally rich scientist was Thomas Edison. I hope its ok with you that he earned his fortune.
And I too love it when honest science reassesses its theories. Since it means they have new facts they now can plug in to the old theories, and refute, confirm, or enhance the old conclusions. And thats what science is.’
LOL, perhaps a course in remedial reading for you is in order. :) Todays skimmers only think about reassessing their dogma when they get caught lying. Thats a far cry from honest appraisal. Not sure why you brought up Edison and wealth. Perhaps you enjoy hearing yourself blather? :) Perhaps youre one of those skimmer scientist who knows so much?
I think that goes for all of us, really.
I figure that if I could walk to the stars, and I started walking now, in a million years...I still wouldn't be anywhere. ;-)
If you want to really get at least a small feel for how big space really is, download Celestia (available for free for Mac, Linux, and Windows). Once you learn how to work the program, try taking a tour of all the planets in the solar system in real time, limiting yourself to the speed of light.
Then take a cruise to Alpha Centauri at 1 AU/sec. It's a rediculous speed, yet it still takes an insane amonut of time to go just to the nearest star.
Celestia is one of the coolest programs I've ever seen. I plug it often here on FR because it so completely rocks. I never imagined I'd be able to run a universe simulator on my desktop.
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