Posted on 02/10/2016 10:28:26 AM PST by LibWhacker
Hundreds of hidden nearby galaxies have been studied for the first time, shedding light on a mysterious gravitational anomaly dubbed the Great Attractor.
Despite being just 250 million light years from Earthâvery close in astronomical termsâthe new galaxies had been hidden from view until now by our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Using CSIROâs Parkes radio telescope equipped with an innovative receiver, an international team of scientists were able to see through the stars and dust of the Milky Way, into a previously unexplored region of space.
The discovery may help to explain the Great Attractor region, which appears to be drawing the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of other galaxies towards it with a gravitational force equivalent to a million billion Suns.
Lead author Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, from The University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said the team found 883 galaxies, a third of which had never been seen before.
âThe Milky Way is very beautiful of course and itâs very interesting to study our own galaxy but it completely blocks out the view of the more distant galaxies behind it,â he said.
Professor Staveley-Smith said scientists have been trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious Great Attractor since major deviatiofrom universal expansion were first discovered in the 1970s and 1980s.
âWe donât actually understand whatâs causing this gravitational acceleration on the Milky Way or where itâs coming from,â he said.
âWe know that in this region there are a few very large collections of galaxies we call clusters or superclusters, and our whole Milky Way is moving towards them at more than two million kilometres per hour.â
The research identified several new structures that could help to explain the movement of the Milky Way, including three galaxy concentrations (named NW1, NW2 and NW3) and two new clusters (named CW1 and CW2).
University of Cape Town astronomer Professor Renée Kraan-Korteweg said astronomers have been trying to map the galaxy distribution hidden behind the Milky Way for decades.
âWeâve used a range of techniques but only radio observations have really succeeded in allowing us to see through the thickest foreground layer of dust and stars,â she said.
âAn average galaxy contains 100 billion stars, so finding hundreds of new galaxies hidden behind the Milky Way points to a lot of mass we didn't know about until now.â
Dr. Bärbel Koribalski from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science said innovative technologies on the Parkes Radio telescope had made it possible to survey large areas of the sky very quickly.
âWith the 21-cm multibeam receiver on Parkes weâre able to map the sky 13 times faster than we could before and make new discoveries at a much greater rate,â she said.
The study involved researchers from Australia, South Africa, the US and the Netherlands, and was published today in the Astronomical Journal.
So, does this dispel the entire “Dark Matter” joke?
Amazing discovery of something that has always been there.......
Liars all.
Sneaky bastards can’t hide anymore.
From the number of satellite galaxies around us (I think 30 in various forms of assimilation or just bound to us by gravity), finding yet another hidden on the other side is mind-blowing.
You can run but you can’t hide.
No, I don’t think so. Why should it?
Thus it is with many discoveries. But this, I’d argue, if interpreted correctly, hasn’t always been there.
Why in the world would you call a group of leading physicists and astronomers a bunch of liars???
390s I hope!
Which is usually the case for any discovery :-)
*ping*
....may help to explain the Great Attractor region, which appears to be drawing the Milky Way and hundreds of thousands of other galaxies towards it with a gravitational force equivalent to a million billion Suns.
We are being flushed!
Now we’ve done it! They were hiding for a reason.
How does this further science? The fact that they did it?
We and every other galaxy is heading someplace 200 million light years away so it’s billions of years in the future...who cares?
Guess I’m a Luddite after all.
The article is about the 889 new galaxies which were seen by radio astronomers using new techniques. There is absolutely no explanation - NO explanation - for what the Great Attractor is or even a hint of a theory. Astronomer click bait.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.