Posted on 11/19/2015 12:26:11 PM PST by Red Badger
ESO's VISTA survey telescope has spied a horde of previously hidden massive galaxies that existed when the Universe was in its infancy. By discovering and studying more of these galaxies than ever before, astronomers have for the first time found out exactly when such monster galaxies first appeared. The newly discovered massive galaxies are marked on this image of the UltraVISTA field. [RED CIRCLES]
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Astronomers have detected something baffling at the furthest frontiers of our observable universe: massive galaxies -- lots of massive galaxies -- that shouldn't even exist.
Depending on the wavelength you observe the universe in, different celestial objects and cosmic phenomena present themselves. This rule is especially true when looking deeper into the universe - the further you look, the farther back in time you can see. Because the universe is expanding, the most ancient light traveling over these vast distances becomes more difficult to observe.
This nature of space-time becomes abundantly clear when considering new discoveries in the infrared realm - light has become so red-shifted (basically stretched) that only infrared observatories can see the faint glow at the most distant corners of the cosmos.
In an effort to reveal galaxies that have remained hidden from view at these vast distances, the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile has revealed some of the youngest galaxies discovered to date, galaxies that were born a mere billion years after the Big Bang. But there's something weird going on: There's lots of them. And they're monsters.
When peering that far into our universe's past, the light generated by stars that were born nearly 13 billion years ago is very difficult to resolve. Therefore, when making ancient galaxy discoveries, it's often only the brightest galaxies that get spotted. But by staring at the same patch of sky since 2009 as part of the UltraVISTA survey, and combining longer wavelength infrared data collected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to tease the faint signal of hundreds of previously undetected galaxies that have, until now, been overlooked.
"We uncovered 574 new massive galaxies - the largest sample of such hidden galaxies in the early Universe ever assembled," said Karina Caputi, of the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen. "Studying them allows us to answer a simple but important question: when did the first massive galaxies appear?"
This selection of massive galaxies all seem to have formed no earlier than around 1 billion years after the Big Bang; there is little evidence from this survey that suggests massive galaxies formed before this time.
"We found no evidence of these massive galaxies earlier than around one billion years after the Big Bang, so we're confident that this is when the first massive galaxies must have formed," said coauthor Henry Joy McCracken, of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris.
But this finding has thrown a wrench in modern galaxy formation models - these massive galaxies shouldn't even exist; these monsters represent approximately half of the galaxies that were present between 1.1 and 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. Models predict that only small galaxies should have existed during this epoch.
What's more, according to an ESO press release, these large galaxies contain huge quantities of dust. In fact, they have to be really dusty for the UltraVISTA survey to detect them at all. This is yet another contradiction to current galaxy formation models.
So what's going on? At the very least, there's a fundamental problem with our galactic formation theories and we need to gain a better view of these titanic galaxies so we can at least understand some of their characteristics. This discovery could ultimately revolutionize how we view the mechanisms driving stellar and galactic evolution.
Astronomers are now turning to the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) for answers. The observatory will try to verify VISTA and Spitzer's observations, adding another layer of detail to the mystery. Then, the ESO's 39-meter European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which is planned to go online in 2024, will be called to action.
In order to understand these monsters of the depths of the cosmos, we'll need the sheer observational power of some of the most state-of-the-art observatories on the planet. Only then can we better theorize about how these galaxies existed at the dawn of the time.
Perhaps they should give some thought to the Big Stretch rather than the Big Bang.
Isaiah 40:22
“It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, WHO STRETCHETH OUT THE HEAVENS AS A CURTAIN and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in...”
Most of em don't even know the Fact of Life!
Life only comes from Life. It never comes from non living. Yet most of them believe the opposite despite the irrefutable evidence!
;’)
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....
* He dropped out of studying physics after getting a Bachelors and settled for writing about science.
* He was an activist in the scary-crazy left wing National Caucus of Labor Committies. And more recently a participant in Occupy Wallstreet.
* After talking his way into funding for focus fusion research he and his group made overblown claims about having a commercially viable fusion technology
It’s one of my favorite Isaac Asimov short stories!......................
That’s okay, son, they’ll make more..............................
The wonders of the universe are infinite............................
Indefinitely infinite................
See also global warming models, two week weather prediction models and Obama's spread of ISIS model.
The scientific paradigm he proposed is supported by hundreds of scientists, and is a natural extension of the electric universe theory supported by thousands of scientists.
If you want to bring in his personal politics to judge that, then you have to use the same logic and give in to the climate politics for global warming. I choose to reject such an approach to science.
Although Alinsky would approve of your personalized ridicule of the man - that’s a known effective tactic.
I’ve told this story somewhere on one of these threads before, but please be patient - there is a point.
I have a painting in my house. It shows a young boy carrying a pail from a well back to a cabin. The cabin is in a meadow with several mature trees around the edge.
I have some information that is not obvious, just because it’s my painting, and I know the history. The boy is my Grandfather. His folks built that cabin. He was born in that cabin. The cabin used to stand in Carroll County, Tennessee.
We can also deduce a lot of information just by looking at it. Since he’s walking back from the well, the pail is full of water. More than likely, his mother told him to fetch some water just about 10 minutes before the moment captured in the painting. So, she’s waiting for him in the cabin. It’s daytime, so his father is out working in the field. My family was not wealthy, and it was in the early 1920’s so he was using a mule, not a tractor. Those big oak trees are easily over 100 years old.
OK - now the point. Although I have special knowledge, and every one of the facts I stated by observation are logical and perfectly sane, none of it is true, except that there is a painting in my house that looks like that.
My special knowledge stems from the fact that my Grandmother gave me the painting, which my Grandfather commissioned in the 60’s, describing the scene he wanted to the artist.
But it’s not my Grandfather, it’s a couple of blobs of paint. There’s no water in the pail, either - again, just paint. Since it was painted in the 60’s, the 100+ year old trees are only a little over 50.
So what? A good artist can paint a wonderful story, and allow you to use your imagination, logic, and reasoning to interpret what you see or experience. But it is NOT what it seems. And this artist was a nice lady in Tennessee, not God. I wonder if a God who could create the universe could create it looking billions of years old?
God loves us. Jesus died for us. Don’t argue over the painting.
By the way - not necessarily directed at you. But one of the bullets in your post mentioned Young Earth Creationists, so I referenced your post.
Have a great weekend.
I do not wish to argue the point with people who believe in God, and do not want to try to "correct" them...since I can't be certain that I am right. However in regard to a wider audience including some skeptical of God, I think apologetic natural theological arguments are greatly crippled by insisting on a 6000 year old universe. While I do not wish to insist the universe is not 6000 years old, certainly if God does not exist at all it isn't. And certainly it is easier to argue for God's existence at all without also stipulating that universe just happens to appear older than it really is because of an act of God.
It is not merely that he has a political view that happens to not be mine. It is that he was an activist member of a zany political organization. If he were a member of a zany far right political organization, it would make me doubt his judgement just as much. Or of any zany type of group that was not political.
The overblown claims of his fusion reactor research I think is more telling though.
And as I said, I do not reject this paradigm based on the fact that an apparent flake happened to champion it. I simply rejected the apparent flake as an expert witness.
I dearly hope that cosmological support of the standard big bang model is based on more honesty than the dubious support of activist computer modelers that have invaded and corrupted the study of climate. But I am open to evidence that it has been so corrupted.
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