Posted on 08/25/2008 3:56:31 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) – An orbiting observatory has spotted a massive cluster of galaxies in deep space that can only be explained by the exotic phenomenon known as dark energy, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday.
Spotted in a scan by ESA's orbiting X-ray telescope XMM-Newton, the cluster's mass is about 1,000 times that of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, it said.
The huge cluster, known by its catalogue number of 2XMM J083026+524133, lies 7.7 billion light years from Earth and helps confirm the existence of dark energy, the agency said.
Under this hypothesis, most of the Universe comprises "dark energy", an enigmatic force that is causing the expansion of the cosmos to accelerate.
The outward drive of dark energy is such that, in more recent times, massive galaxy clusters have lacked the gravitational glue to be able to form.
So the newly-discovered super-cluster can only have been formed earlier in the history of the Universe, a notion that is backed by its huge distance from Earth.
"The galaxy cluster is so big that there can only be a handful of them at that distance," said ESA, likening the achievement to finding a "cosmic needle in a haystack."
The observation was made by a team led by Georg Lamer of the Potsdam Astrophysics Institute, eastern Germany, initially using a photon imaging camera aboard the XMM-Newton.
Intrigued by the indicators of scorching gases spewed out by X-ray sources, the astronomers followed up by getting a deep exposure image of the region from a large binocular telescope in the Arizona desert.
"Dark energy" is believed to comprise more than 72 percent of the detected Universe and "dark matter" -- heavy particles still waiting to be discovered -- accounts for around 23 percent, according to cosmological theory.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMY70XIPIF_index_0.html
XMM-Newton’s massive discovery
25 August 2008
ESA’s orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has discovered the most massive cluster of galaxies seen in the distant Universe until now. The galaxy cluster is so big that there can only be a handful of them at that distance, making this a rare catch indeed. The discovery confirms the existence of dark energy.
The newly-discovered monster, known only by the catalogue number 2XMM J083026+524133, is estimated to contain as much mass as a thousand large galaxies. Much of it is in the form of 100-million-degree hot gas. It was first observed by chance as XMM-Newton was studying another celestial object and 2XMM J083026+524133 was placed in a catalogue for a future follow-up.
Trantor!!!
Star’s End...
But can George Bush drill there? That’s all that matters. Dark matters. Anti matters.
T’was just luck they found ‘em
not that it matters ;-)
This is written for the general public, so I assume the author means accelerate positively (speeding up) as opposed to accelerate negatively (slowing down). In popular speech people use decelerate instead of accelerate negatively; they use accelerate instead of accelerate positively.
It wasn't so long ago that scientists thought that the expansion of the universe was slowing down. Now they think it is speeding up; hence they postulated the existence of dark energy and dark matter. Do they have any way of describing what dark energy and dark matter are?
What...we are all concerned about the Black Messiah with his dark matter in Denver...
I’m about ready to Change ... channels, that is.. lol
Lots of musical interludes so far..
This is an interesting one,, kind of a piece of young universe, wait until the dems get done with it. ;-)
Somehow, adding this stuff seems to make the universe come out right, but...what do I know?
God knows.
Thanks for the ping!
You’re welcome!
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