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Diploid
Cuban


Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought
#5934135 - 08/05/06 10:36 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Astronomers Say Universe May Be Bigger and Older By John Johnson Jr., Times Staff Writer August 5, 2006
New findings from an Ohio State University team of astronomers are raising the possibility that the universe is larger than previously thought.
Using new measurement methods, the team found that the Triangulum Galaxy is 3 million light-years away, not the 2.6 million that had been accepted in the past.
If the method proves reliable for other distant objects, the results could force a readjustment of one of the building blocks of modern cosmology: the Hubble constant.
"The Hubble constant used to be the one parameter that we knew pretty well. Now it's lagging behind," said Krzysztof Z. Stanek, a coauthor of a paper describing the new work, scheduled to appear in the Astrophysical Journal.
For 80 years, the Hubble constant has been used to calculate how far away objects are in the universe. The constant uses a series of measurements, including differences in light intensity and changes in the "red shift," which measures how far the light from a distant star is shifted toward the red end of the light spectrum. The greater the red shift, the farther away the object is and the faster it is traveling.
A readjusted Hubble constant would make the observable universe about 15% larger than some current estimates, which range from a radius of 46 billion light-years to 78 billion light-years, according to recent calculations.
The estimated age of the universe would also increase, to about 16 billion years old from the current 13.7 billion years.
The new method employs a variety of telescopes scanning in the optical and infrared ranges.
Peter Eisenhardt, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La CaƱada Flintridge specializing in galaxy evolution, called the paper a "pretty solid piece of work."
But he cautioned that it would be premature to change the model of the universe based on a single study. He also said interstellar dust might be interfering with the light from Triangulum, making it appear farther away than it really is. The Ohio team took dust into consideration but used a slightly different method to estimate its impact on distance calculations, Eisenhardt said.
The new finding wouldn't challenge the basic model of a rapidly expanding universe.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-universe5aug05,1,3271453.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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TODAY
Battletoad


Registered: 09/25/03
Posts: 10,218
Loc: Metropolis City, USA
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Diploid]
#5934437 - 08/05/06 12:29 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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I thought the universe was created by God 6000 years ago...wtf??!!!???! I guess you learn something new every day
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ca'rouse (k-rouz) intr.v. To engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking.
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Diploid
Cuban


Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: TODAY]
#5934609 - 08/05/06 01:17 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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The bible thumpers were close, only off by 25,000% or so.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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thatiAM
Stranger

Registered: 06/14/06
Posts: 1,250
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Diploid]
#5934768 - 08/05/06 02:11 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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I know this is probably explainable...But how in the heck can the universe's radius be 78 billion light years if it is only 16 billion years old? It would have to be expanding at a speed like...5 times the speed of light? Whaaaaaa?
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: thatiAM]
#5934821 - 08/05/06 02:34 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
thatiAM said: It would have to be expanding at a speed like...5 times the speed of light? Whaaaaaa?
Spacetime has no mass, and can expand faster than the speed of light.
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thatiAM
Stranger

Registered: 06/14/06
Posts: 1,250
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Silversoul]
#5935061 - 08/05/06 04:48 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Oh, so they don't mean actual stuff, just the boundaries of the universe? Ok, I could see that. Still, though...If there are no particles then it is nothing expanding to fill up more nothing? Hahaha...
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: thatiAM]
#5935179 - 08/05/06 06:22 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
thatiAM said: Oh, so they don't mean actual stuff, just the boundaries of the universe? Ok, I could see that. Still, though...If there are no particles then it is nothing expanding to fill up more nothing? Hahaha...
No, you're confused. Matter is attached to spacetime, so when spacetime expands, the matter expands out with it. But it's not the matter that's moving. It's the space between it.
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thatiAM
Stranger

Registered: 06/14/06
Posts: 1,250
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Silversoul]
#5935282 - 08/05/06 07:24 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Ohhhh...That's messed up...Really weird.
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Asante
Mage


Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 86,795
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Silversoul]
#5935357 - 08/05/06 08:05 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Looks like a recipy for faster-than-light travel: Just get in the craft, slam the door shut, close the window and then expand space-time behind you and shrink it in front 
Does anyone here believe in the Big Rip?
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Asante]
#5935577 - 08/05/06 10:12 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Wiccan_Seeker said: Looks like a recipy for faster-than-light travel: Just get in the craft, slam the door shut, close the window and then expand space-time behind you and shrink it in front 
Yup. That's how the Starship Enterprise got around.
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea


Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Diploid]
#5937936 - 08/06/06 06:36 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Thus increasing the chances of life more intelligent than us out there.
Intelligent enough to be performing interstellar travel maybe?
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jungjedi
starfleet


Registered: 03/20/05
Posts: 316
Loc: headed towards the fronti...
Last seen: 17 years, 4 months
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Re: The Universe May Be Bigger And Older Than Thought [Re: Ego Death]
#5938471 - 08/06/06 09:29 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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there are regions of spacetime so remote from one another that information cannot be exchanged.this constitutes a BLACK-HOLE region from which light and information cannot escape.SO,there is a phase space,where TIME also undergoes phase changes.and i also think the UNIVERSAL CONSTANT undergoes a phase change
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