Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time (Himiko)

Space.com on Yahoo ^ | 5/17/09 | Jeremy Hsu

[NormsRevenge]

A newly found primordial blob may represent the most massive object ever discovered in the early universe, researchers announced today.

The gas cloud, spotted from 12.9 billion light-years away, could signal the earliest stages of galaxy formation back when the universe was just 800 million years old.

"I have never heard about any [similar] objects that could be resolved at this distance," said Masami Ouchi, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, Calif. "It's kind of record-breaking."

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). An object 12.9 billion light-years away is seen as it existed 12.9 billion years ago, and the light is just now arriving.

The cloud predates similar blobs, known as Lyman-Alpha blobs, which existed when the universe was 2 billion to 3 billion years old. Researchers named their new find Himiko, after an ancient Japanese queen with an equally murky past.

Himiko holds more than 10 times as much mass as the next largest object found in the early universe, or roughly the equivalent mass of 40 billion suns. At 55,000 light years across, it spans about half the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Lyman-Alpha blobs remain a mystery because existing telescopes have a hard time peering so far back to nearly the dawn of the universe.

Himiko sits right on the doorstep of an era called the reionization epoch, which lasted between 200 million and 1 billion years after the Big Bang. That's when the universe had just emerged from its cosmic dark ages and had begun brightening through the formation of stars and galaxies. Hot, energized hydrogen gas from that time period has allowed astronomers to begin seeing some objects — as much good as it does to squint at such fuzzy blobs.

[NormsRevenge]

This handout image courtesy of the Carnegie Institution For Science shows the Himiko object, in a composite and in false color. Astronomers announced the discovery of a massive and mysterious gas blob of the type that can be precursors to galaxies, which they dubbed Himiko. (AFP/Carnegie/M.Ouchi)

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

I already know where this one is headed.....

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time

[headsonpikes]

So it’s not Michael Moore!

[lexington minuteman 1775]

I figgured Helen Thomas, Hillary or Pelosi...looks like Helen is FIRST up...

[JoeProBono]

[NormsRevenge]

this is month old news , btw. :-)

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/himiko/index

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Helen was the prohibitive favorite.....

[SandRat]

errr... did Godzilla leave a “calling - card” behind?

[Nathan Zachary]

Probably dinosaur farts that drifted off the planet when the atmosphere was very thin. Don’t forget, there were trillions of dinosaurs farting during early earth times, so they must have created huge clouds of methane. Then they all died, falling in to huge pits that held 500 billion dinosaurs each, which is the size of the average Saudi oil field today.

[Charles Henrickson]

An out-of-focus Cubs cap?

[SevenofNine]

I don’t know Godzilla is pretty old remember our nuke bombs revived him he was about 1,000 years or more now this is 2009 so multiple that

[big'ol_freeper]

Out of respect I will forgo the obligatory Teddy Kennedy photo...

[SandRat]

well that is a long time between BMs.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

“And the earth was without form...”

Genesis
http://www.Biblegateway.com

[Question_Assumptions]

So, exactly how fast have things been moving apart since the Big Bang if we could get 12.9 billion light-years away from this object in 13.7 billion years? At best, assuming it was traveling in the opposite direction for the 0.8 billion years before the light left it and could have traveled no more than 0.8 billion light years if it were traveling at the speed of light, and our proto-galaxy similarly moved 0.8 billion light years in our current direction, we would have had to travel at least (and probably more than, since they couldn't travel at the speed of light) 11.3 billion years since that point in time. That would have us traveling at an average of 0.83c (the speed of light), wouldn't it, essentially outrunning the light for 12.9 billion years. wouldn't it?

[devolve]

.

Giant Mystery Blob of Interest Ping

[starlifter]

[Mr. K]

I went to college for Physics and I STILL cannot understand how they can capture an image and say it is from 12 billion light years ago.

I mean, That object did not suddenly form 12billion years ago and we suddenly see it flash into existance, why are we seeing a distinct image- not schmeered o all over the place as the thing moved and morphed over the NEXT couple billion years?

[Wilhelm Tell]

I already know where this one is headed.....

Yep. So why not get things started? I think God is big enough to handle a really big, really ancient universe.

[Mr. K]

respect for what?

Did the fat load finally go off to answer for MAry Jo Kopechne?

[big'ol_freeper]

LOL...I shouldn’t laugh, but no, not yet.

[skinkinthegrass]

*sigh*
Helen Thomas "Eyewash"



GREAT EYEWASH!

[Ransomed]

Did the scientists hear the sound of insane piping? Maybe HP Lovecraft was right...

Freegards

[SpaceBar]

Your question is answered here: Universe Measured: We're 156 Billion Light-years Wide!

with additional background information here.

[SpaceBar]

The single most important statement summing up both articles being: Distances obtained as the speed of light multiplied by a cosmological time interval have no direct physical significance.

[SevenofNine]

I once ask Godzilla how old are you he got tick off with me I think he is about 5,000 to 1,000 year old

He look good

[Rebelbase]

12.9 million billion light years before the cubs win a World Series.

[DigitalVideoDude]

I asked the same question this way...

If this light was emitted 13 billion years ago,
And our galaxy probably did not even exist at that time,
And the universe had not expanded to the current region of our galaxy yet,
And this light has traveled 13 billion light years to get here,
How did the matter that makes up our galaxy out-run this light so that we could be here when the light eventually arrived 13 billion years later?

[potlatch]

Blobs are hard to come by, especially giant mystery blobs. This one may be gunning for us;

[potlatch]

BIKINI GIRL EYEWASH

[devolve]

.

Good post potlatch

[potlatch]

Thank you

[mikrofon]

I’m not up on the NL, what position does Himiko play?

[Moonman62]

Himiko sits right on the doorstep of an era called the reionization epoch, which lasted between 200 million and 1 billion years after the Big Bang. That's when the universe had just emerged from its cosmic dark ages and had begun brightening through the formation of stars and galaxies.

Not that anyone cares, but reionization was when the Universe once again became relatively transparent to light.

[Moonman62]

I think she was much prettier before she got the boob job and mangled her belly button.

[devolve]

.

Only for your first image!