Giant Tunnel Found In Distant Galaxy

Post Chronicle ^ | 1.12.2006

[Hadean]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2006 (UPI) -- U.S. astronomers say they have discovered a giant Milky Way-sized tunnel filled with high energy particles in a distant galaxy cluster.

The findings, presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting may provide the missing evolutionary link necessary to understand radio jets resulting from supermassive black holes within giant galaxies, researchers said.

Scientists working with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the multi-million-degree gas in the galaxy cluster Abell 2597, where they discovered an unusual X-ray tunnel large enough to fit the entire Milky Way galaxy inside.

The cluster, located at a distance of roughly 1 billion light-years, contains a tunnel in the hot gas, which measures nearly 110 thousand light-years by 36 thousand light-years in size. The tunnel, which appears to originate near the core of the central giant galaxy in the cluster, may be more than 200 million years old, researchers said.

[lapsus calami]

 

Evidently, the Pali's are using it to bring weapons into Gaza.

 

Yes - drat those sneaky Romulans

 

 

 

[Auntie Dem]

The tunnel, which appears to originate near the core of the central giant galaxy in the cluster, may be more than 200 million years old, researchers said.

Do they know this from carbon 14 dating, or the petroglyphs carved on the sides?

Oh wait...Hot Gases...it must be from Ted Kennedy's black hole.

[M Kehoe]

It's not a tunnel, it's the Stairway to Heaven

Sorry, I'm bored.

5.56mm

[Conan the Librarian]

Or it could be time distortion field (if you saw SG Atlantis last night)

It also could be a darkton cloud dumping loads of darktons into the universe.

[mewzilla]

Paging MIB...

[SampleMan]

So that's where I left it.

[mikrofon]

a giant Milky Way-sized tunnel filled with high energy particles in a distant galaxy cluster.

Many have discovered the enjoyment of tunneling through a Milky Way bar filled with high-energy carbs in a chocolate nougat cluster...

[Verginius Rufus]

Something which is nearly 110,000 light years in length is more likely to be a natural feature rather than something created by intelligent critters, however talented they might be.

[Young Werther]

The "Giant Tunnel" isn't, perchance, under Boston Harbor is it?

[Talking_Mouse]

Someone more knowledgeable than I am please correct me if my understanding is wrong. This tunnel is in a galaxy cluster, like our Local Group. The tunnel is in the central giant galaxy.

How big is the giant galaxy? How does the gas stay super heated in that much space? The tunnel seams to originate near the core of the giant galaxy, is it possible that it is the jet from giant-super-massive black hole?

[mdmathis6]

A Vogon constructed Hyperspace Bypass......!

[JasonC]

Um, this article is about a press release that is over 3 years old.

[Zechariah11]

They've named it Madonna.

ROFL!

[Some hope remaining.]

The cluster, located at a distance of roughly 1 billion light-years, contains a tunnel in the hot gas, ... The tunnel, which appears to originate near the core of the central giant galaxy in the cluster, may be more than 200 million years old, researchers said.

If something is a billion light years away but approximately 200 million years old can we see it? Or maybe they were saying the light which has reached us and which we now see may have been emitted when the tunnel was 200 million years old? Just wondering.

[JasonC]

It's a jet like the one at the core of M87, that blows out beyond its source galaxy. The dark splotch on the right is probably the nearer lobe, oriented toward the camera. They probably pinwheel a little as they get farther from the source, the end of the plume tailing off to one side, sheered by the rotation of the surrounding gas around the gravitational core.

[JasonC]

Doesn't follow. We aren't the only scale.

[JasonC]

The latter. The light took something under a billion years to get here, while the universe expanded some in the meantime. But the structure they see from that old light, is already hundreds of thousands of light years across. It is at least hundreds of thousands of years old, and if the stuff involved is mostly moving at the sort of speeds stars typically having circling their galaxy, then millions is much more likely. They are estimating the age by comparing the size with what they estimate for the speed of the cloud. (Speed shifts the color of the light slightly, but detectably).

[JasonC]

M87s jet

[Semper Paratus]

Does the tunnel end just north of Nogales Arizona?

[RadioAstronomer]

Intersting. I need to look at this further. Thanks for the ping!