• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Hubble pinpoints furthest protocluster of galaxies ever seen

Analog

Analog

Lifer
hubblepinpoi.jpg


The composite image at left, taken in visible and near-infrared light, reveals the location of five galaxies clustered together just 600 million years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang. The circles pinpoint the galaxies. The sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spied the galaxies in a random sky survey. The developing cluster is the most distant ever observed. The average distance between them is comparable to that of the galaxies in the Local Group, consisting of two large spiral galaxies, the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, and a few dozen small dwarf galaxies. The close-up images at right, taken in near-infrared light, show the galaxies. Simulations show that the galaxies will eventually merge and form the brightest central galaxy in the cluster, a giant elliptical similar to the Virgo cluster’s Messier 87. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster presumably will grow into a massive galactic city, similar in size to the nearby Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than 2000 galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Trenti (University of Cambridge, UK and University of Colorado, Boulder, USA), L. Bradley (STScI), and the BoRG team

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-hubble-furthest-protocluster-galaxies.html
 
Awesome! One thing I hate about such articles though: tenses. " will eventually merge" should be "the light was emitted by those galaxies nearly 14 billion years ago. Simulations show that long ago, those galaxies likely merged. The merged light from those galaxies should reach us in about another 6 billion years.
 
DrPizza said:
Awesome! One thing I hate about such articles though: tenses. " will eventually merge" should be "the light was emitted by those galaxies nearly 14 billion years ago. Simulations show that long ago, those galaxies likely merged. The merged light from those galaxies should reach us in about another 6 billion years.
Click to expand...

That used to bother me but I've noticed that astronomy literature tends to be written that way just to make things easier to understand. At least, it's easier for me to understand it when it's written that way.

If you really want to be clear, you could replace "they will eventually merge" with "we will eventually see them merge." Anyone interested in astronomy knows that these things already happened billions of years ago and the light just hasn't reached us yet, they don't have to remind us in every sentence.
 
All I see is pixels.

How do they determine these are galaxy clusters based on a few pixels? Maybe it was just dirt on the lense?
 
The picture is pretty mind blogging, in that all that you see are galaxies with millions of stars each.

When scientist calculate the age of the light how do they account for the dilation of space is it constant in time and distance?
 
the thing about space is that scientists could be BS'ing their findings and 99.99% of the people wouldn't know the difference.
 
Last edited:
amdhunter said:
Is that where God is hiding?
Click to expand...

Nada I think God's home is in an idea shared by global consciosness...or universal consciousness.we should say...the more people who believe or go anti...strengthen or weaken this idea...heaven and helll...a state of mind anti...which is just another word for atheist because an atheist already acknowledged the idea of God there just anti that idea...its really not that hard to see at least from my pov...I think that everyone thinks in 3 dimensions...when really there is there is so much more...ourselves our thoughts can be more..I mean just think how we see...we see between x freqluency of light and x frequency of light just like we hear between 20hz - 20khz...but there's more...but Wed never know because we can't hear or see that...our equipment can't even do it...to be so small minded to deny the existence of an entity made up the idea of purity and love and everything good the idea of giving the shirt off your back to someone needing it...that right there is as small minded as thinking the earth is flat.
 
Last edited:
zanejohnson said:
Nada I think God's home is in an idea shared by global consciosness...or universal consciousness.we should say...the more people who believe or go anti...which is just another word for atheist because an atheist already acknowledged the idea of God there just anti that idea...its really not that hard to see at least from my pov...I think that everyone thinks in 3 dimensions...when really there is there is so much more...ourselves our thoughts can be more..I mean just think how we see...we see between x freqluency of light and x frequency of light just like we hear between 20hz - 20khz...but there's more...but Wed never know because we can't hear or see that...our equipment can't even do it...
Click to expand...

ancient-aliens-invisible-something-meme-generator-i-don-t-understand-therefore-aliens-29e979.jpg
 
brandonb said:
All I see is pixels.

How do they determine these are galaxy clusters based on a few pixels? Maybe it was just dirt on the lense?
Click to expand...

They don't just get the picture, but all sorts of data sets from the scope itself. Teams of people pour over the data for weeks and months before releasing the results. Not just a guy looking at the stars from his shitter each evening. 😀

Printer Bandit said:
the thing about space is that scientists could be BS'ing their findings and 99.99% of the people wouldn't know the difference.
Click to expand...

Peer review.
 
DrPizza said:
Awesome! One thing I hate about such articles though: tenses. " will eventually merge" should be "the light was emitted by those galaxies nearly 14 billion years ago. Simulations show that long ago, those galaxies likely merged. The merged light from those galaxies should reach us in about another 6 billion years.
Click to expand...

Well... maybe 10 or so billion years ago they accelerated at each other and are colliding to form a super cluster right now? And I mean this very minute.
 
Gothgar said:
Well... maybe 10 or so billion years ago they accelerated at each other and are colliding to form a super cluster right now? And I mean this very minute.
Click to expand...

actually, the life forms on the merged galaxies there are looking through their Hubble and seeing our galaxy as a proto galaxy right now, and thinking, wow - someday those proto galaxies will someday merge, and we'll see them in about 6 billion years... :biggrin:
 
Looks like they have to go up and clean the lens again. :biggrin:

Actually that is quite cool the stuff they can pickup with that.
 
brandonb said:
All I see is pixels.

How do they determine these are galaxy clusters based on a few pixels? Maybe it was just dirt on the lense?
Click to expand...

Lol. Well it's a mirror not a lens. I think dust on the mirror would likely affect the total light gathering power of the telescope and probably wouldn't appear in the image really. Also this is in focus anything on the mirror would appear horribly out of focus I think, again I don't think it would appear at all, and would affect only the light gathering power.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top