Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from SDSS-III

NASA ^ | January 20, 2014 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: How large do things appear when far away? When peering across the universe, the answer can actually tell us about its average gravitational history and hence its composition. Toward this goal, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS-III) has measured slight recurring density enhancements in galaxy densities up to six billion light years away (redshift 0.7), when the universe was about half its current age. These density ripples are known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) and are expected to emerge from the early universe at a known size scale. BOSS's measurements of this size scale indicate a strong universe component of dark energy, and so bolsters previous indications of this unusual composition. Pictured above is an artist's illustration depicting exaggerated BAOs in the distant universe.

[SunkenCiv]

[Illustration Credit: Zosia Rostomian (LBNL), SDSS-III, BOSS]

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[PapaNew]

Zowie.

Hey, does anyone have a Gastronomy Picture of the Day?

[shibumi]

Here are two photos of Gastronomy:

And one of a completed Gastroscopy:

[mikrofon]

% (not so) tiny Bubbles .... in the Brane %

[SunkenCiv]

Good idea for a ping list, but no, I’m not starting another one. ;’)