Giant Galaxy Clusters found by Planck telescope

[Apech]

BBC article

 

"Astronomers are interested in such observations because they say something about the way the Universe is built on the grandest scales - how matter is organised into vast filaments and sheets and separated by great voids.

Not only do the clusters contain colossal quantities of visible matter - stars, gas and dust - but they also retain even larger quantities of invisible, and as yet unidentifiable, "dark matter"."

 

Great article I thought.

 

A.

[strawdog65]

BBC article

 

"Astronomers are interested in such observations because they say something about the way the Universe is built on the grandest scales - how matter is organised into vast filaments and sheets and separated by great voids.

Not only do the clusters contain colossal quantities of visible matter - stars, gas and dust - but they also retain even larger quantities of invisible, and as yet unidentifiable, "dark matter"."

 

Great article I thought.

 

A.

 

 

Hi Apech!

 

We (all of the sentient life) are amazingly miniscule dust motes

living within ever greater and ever more complex structures which

to my mind are probably infinite.

 

The sheer act of our awareness and the ability to observe such

incredible attitude changing phenomena is humbling to the core.

 

Comprehension of what is infinitely vast is forever beyond us.

We will always be the spectators, thinking we know what the

nature of the universe (at least ours) is based on by the things we

learn in our cosmological backyard, never grasping the complete

picture. But is it great fun!

 

That is unless this is a holographic universal existence, then

all is contained within the smallest piece.

 

Peace!

[Brian]

Thanks, Apech!!! I enjoyed this article very much.

[Apech]

Hi Apech!

 

We (all of the sentient life) are amazingly miniscule dust motes

living within ever greater and ever more complex structures which

to my mind are probably infinite.

 

The sheer act of our awareness and the ability to observe such

incredible attitude changing phenomena is humbling to the core.

 

Comprehension of what is infinitely vast is forever beyond us.

We will always be the spectators, thinking we know what the

nature of the universe (at least ours) is based on by the things we

learn in our cosmological backyard, never grasping the complete

picture. But is it great fun!

 

That is unless this is a holographic universal existence, then

all is contained within the smallest piece.

 

Peace!

 

Yes I think you are right - we will never grasp the complete picture - but the deeper, further back in time they look it gets more fascinating and awesome (in the real sense of the word).

[Apech]

Thanks, Apech!!! I enjoyed this article very much.

 

Glad you liked it .

[Mark Foote]

"Astronomers are interested in such observations because they say something about the way the Universe is built on the grandest scales - how matter is organised into vast filaments and sheets and separated by great voids.

 

Wish they had demonstrated how such observations reveal filaments and sheets- didn't see any! Also, I wonder, do the new many, many galaxies astonish astronomers, or did they just assume they were there and now they are documented? I didn't quite get what the Planck had revealed that was new to astronomers, although the images are beautiful to me- maybe I should read it again!

[Apech]

Wish they had demonstrated how such observations reveal filaments and sheets- didn't see any! Also, I wonder, do the new many, many galaxies astonish astronomers, or did they just assume they were there and now they are documented? I didn't quite get what the Planck had revealed that was new to astronomers, although the images are beautiful to me- maybe I should read it again!

 

Hi Mark,

 

I think, I may be wrong, but the further they look into space the further back in time they are looking. The revelation is about how structured the universe is in its early days ... not a random splurge of stuff but large groupings of galaxies ... this is where the sheets and filaments come in ... you see if the Big Bang was like a regular explosion you'd just see random distribution and very little structure ...

Edited January 12, 2011 by Apech
missed a word

[joeblast]

Sometimes its tough to do a 3d analysis in your head when just looking at 2d pictures - the filaments are there though, you dont even have to look back very far.

[strawdog65]

[joeblast]

I recall reading that steinhardt/turok ekpyrotic universe theory when it came out, pretty interesting, although it has its own set of technical issues - it may provide a decently coherent picture of a bounce so as to rid the "ugly" inflation theory but it opens a whole nother book of questions I personally dont have a problem with inflation, it simply seems to be a small subset of very high energies where the "cosmic coefficient of friction" has broken down and the energy of all particles high enough so as to be superfluid, in a way.

 

Another interesting idea within that ekpyrotic model - if our "4brane" is immersed in higher dimensional space, would it need to 'crunch' at all if it was the higher dimensional branes actually making the collision? That might appear in "this 4brane" as a spontaneous explosion of exemplary magnitude (Unless of course "this 4brane" is created by the energy of the higher dimensional brane-collision.)

 

Oscillation is a good premise, though.

[manitou]

Sometimes I wonder if galaxies or universes don't oscillate through a black hole from galaxy incarnation to incarnation. Like when this cycle is over, we'll be on the other side of a black hole.

[Apech]

I think Big Bang is probably one of the most misleading expressions in astrophysics - it makes people think that there was some kind of normal event like an explosion which we now see the 'remnants' of - while what is actually meant is the coming into existence of space/time itself and the resultant energy.

[Mark Foote]

I think Big Bang is probably one of the most misleading expressions in astrophysics - it makes people think that there was some kind of normal event like an explosion which we now see the 'remnants' of - while what is actually meant is the coming into existence of space/time itself and the resultant energy.

 

Trapped, in a room full of physics/astronomy majors, mumbling incoherent nonsense!

 

I am enjoying this thread, 'cause clearly I haven't kept up on all this. I have trouble picturing the "coming into existence of space/time itself and the resultant energy". I read the words about 4branes and bounce, and it sounds fascinating, I have no idea what we're talking about! Thanks, all, for the amazing tour around the dark edges.

[joeblast]

Here's some additional reading, Mark.

 

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/npr/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekpyrotic_universe

 

4brane=our 'normal' 3d+1t, and most of these extra dimensional constructs postulate "our 4brane" immersed in higher dimensional space - sorta like our consciousness is embedded into the body, a duality, like "Vader betrayed and murdered your father," or the consciousness having an interaction point that (strictly mechanically speaking, mostly) runs in the context of a higher level brain-process.

 

the ekpyrotic theory postulates an oscillating trillions-year resonance of higher dimensional (energetic mem)branes, the collision of such creating the energetic conditions for time and space.

 

certainly an interesting theory