Galaxy find stirs Big Bang debate

CNN.COM ^ | 1/8/2004 | CNN

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- An Australian-led team of scientists has discovered a new string of galaxies which they say challenges existing theories about the evolution of the universe.

The team, using telescopes in Chile and in Australia, detected the galaxies about 10.8 billion light years away in a remote region of the universe, the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics said in a statement Thursday.

[ZeitgeistSurfer]

When the entire galaxy string was seen, it spelled out "Ralph Spoilsport Motors" (whatever the heck that means).

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[biblewonk]

Here's another one of those things that challenges the big bang theory. There are lots more, I just don't remember them.

[RightWhale]

considered technically impossible by many American astronomers

Wonder what the real story is.

[Buck W.]

"When the entire galaxy string was seen, it spelled out "Ralph Spoilsport Motors" (whatever the heck that means)."

Yes, but what if everything you know is WRONG?

[jonno]

(big) bump!

[Buck W.]

"With light traveling at 9.5 trillion kilometers in one light year"

Why can't ANYONE ever get this right?

[JustAnAmerican]

Guess I need to bone up on optics. But for the time being, how can anyone tell how long light has been traveling with any certainty? It's not as if they know how big the Galaxy is and can use that as a reference. Does the visual band change a certain amount every year it travels?

[martin_fierro]

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[keithtoo]

"The universe was formed during the Big Bang about 3 billion years earlier -- 13.7 billion years ago"

Whatever else this statement is - it may or may not be true - it is NOT a scientific statement. It is based on iference, or projection, or faith, but the Universe does not come with a time stamp.

[onedoug]

"There simply hasn't been enough time since the Big Bang for it to form structures this colossal."

Yet the universe to contain such structures had formed.

If "inflation" preceeded the classical "big-bang", i.e, an expansionary epoch (even a few non-seconds) prior to the laws of physics having been established, I suspect this galactic string works into that model a little more elegantly.

[Physicist]

We'll see whether the interpretation of the data holds up. There certainly have been a lot of claims over the years, but the discrepancies (such as the ages of Pop II stars) have fizzled away over the years as measurement techniques have improved.

Not all of them, however. The one real discrepancy that has remained led to the discovery of dark energy. We'll see soon enough whether this is telling us something profound.

[bruin66]

in a remote region of the universe...

Please tell me what region of the universe isn't "remote"...

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Your statement is not scientific.

[Old Professer]

Just what would it take to incite an invisible mass at Absolute Zero?

[expatpat]

Perhaps God did it!

[Old Professer]

Instrument error?

[Old Professer]

Elegance brooks no interference.

[Mike Fieschko]

Yes, but what if everything you know is WRONG?

Ahh, he never lies, and he's always right.

They never come up into the hills.

[RightWhale]

Perhaps God did it!

What? God wouldn't let the Aussies use an American telescope? Series. The Aussies didn't have the scratch, and that's with NASA money too.