Buddhas Hand Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 New Map of Distant Galaxies May Reveal Dark Energy History by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor Date: 02 April 2012 Time: 10:25 AM ET The record of baryon acoustic oscillations (white rings) in galaxy maps helps astronomers retrace the history of the expanding universe. CREDIT: E. M. Huff, the SDSS-III team, and the South Pole Telescope team/Graphic: Zosia Rostomian View full size image Dark energy, the weird force blamed for propelling the universe to expand at an accelerated speed, probably turned on between 5 and 7 billion years ago, scientists think. Now astronomers have mapped thousands of galaxies from this era, and have determined the most precise distances to them yet, in an effort to get to the bottom of the dark energy mystery. Dark energy is thought to represent about 74 percent of the universe's total mass and energy, dwarfing ordinary matter. While its existence has never been directly confirmed, the strange force remains the leading explanation for why galaxies are speeding up as they spread farther and farther apart from each other. "Ordinary matter is only a few percent of the universe," Ariel Sanchez, a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, said in a statement. "The largest component of the universe is dark energy — an irreducible energy associated with space itself that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate." But the expansion of the universe hasn't always been accelerating. Theorists think that before roughly 5 to 7 billion years ago, the expansion of the universe was slowing, due to the inward pull of gravity. Then, around that time, the expansion stopped slowing and started speeding up from the force of dark energy. Coming soon: Google Maps Galaxy edition A slice of the 3D image. Who would have thought the universe is basically a giant mood ring? Red areas indicate more gas, while blue means less. Click to enlarge. To study these changes in cosmic expansion, scientists must measure the distances between galaxies now, as well as during different epochs of the distant past. They can do this by looking at very distant galaxies whose light is only reaching us now after traveling billions of years, which can paint a picture of what the universe looked like billions of years ago. Now, astronomers have created the most accurate map yet of galaxies in the distant universe, offering a window into the past and, possibly, into dark energy. The map comes from data collected by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the third Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III). "The result is phenomenal," one of the leaders of the analysis team, Will Percival of the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "We have only one-third of the data that BOSS will deliver, and that has already allowed us to measure how fast the universe was expanding six billion years ago — to an accuracy of two percent." BOSS uses a custom designed instrument called a spectrograph on the SDSS 2.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. The project aims to observe more than a million galaxies in six years. The new findings come from observations BOSS made of 250,000 galaxies in its first year and a half of observations. As the project continues, astronomers expect even more revealing finds. "For the past 13 years, we've had a simple model of how dark energy works," said David Schlegel of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, BOSS' principal investigator. "But the truth is, we only have a little bit of data, and we're just beginning to explore the times when dark energy turned on. If there are surprises lurking out there, we expect to find them." Researchers reported the first results from BOSS on March 30 at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester, England. The Bullet ClusterHot gas in this collision of galaxy clusters is seen as two pink clumps that contain most of the normal matter. The bullet-shaped clump on the right is hot gas from one cluster, which passed through the hot gas from the other larger cluster. Other telescopes were used to detect the bulk of the matter in the clusters, which turns out to be dark matter (highlighted in blue). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BananaMash Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I feel like I know some of these words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I know most of the colours .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted November 13, 2012 Author Share Posted November 13, 2012 I feel like I know some of these words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
:D Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Hey, I found the Apple maps version of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudson bay rules Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Of course the article is written by a woman. Men don't need maps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cromeslab Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Dark energy,accounts for more than 90% of the known universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryten Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I will only believe it if Paul Broun can confirm it. He is on the science committee afterall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUPERTKBD Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Of course the article is written by a woman. Men don't need maps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SterlingArcher Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Hey, I found the Apple maps version of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeromotacanucks Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 it´s a nice map. but since the lightspeed doesn´t go faster everything we see on the universe is showing the past. imagine the problem if you have to do an interestelar travel, the constellations, stars, planets etc will change as you approach from your destination... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argon Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 we have reached a very onfusing part of history Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uber_pwnzor Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Dark energy,accounts for more than 90% of the known universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthNinja Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 That's what I tell the girls, except I use the word "penis". They never listen.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom-The-Great Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 no silly.. dark energy accounts for more than penis of the known universe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthNinja Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Dark energy,accounts for more than 90% of the known universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthNinja Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 no silly.. dark energy accounts for more than penis of the known universe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Actually, the theory is that Dark Energy (which we still do not know exactly what this is) comprises about 73-74%% of the universe and Dark Matter (which we still do not know exactly what this is) comprises about 22-23%. I remember hearing one scientist stating: 'When scientists are unable to explain something, they call it dark'. Dark = hypothetical. While simple math then may lead us to conclude that we can only explain 4% of the universe, this also would be incorrect. By our standards today, we are only capable of observing about4% of the universe. What we can actually explain would be much less than that. While this sounds rather paltry, our current knowledge of the laws of physics have actually allowed us to gain a tremendous amount of knowledge. It's just that there is so much more to know (and so much would be an understatement to state the least). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUPERTKBD Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I remember hearing one scientist stating: 'When scientists are unable to explain something, they call it dark'. Dark = hypothetical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nucklehead Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Or why some refer to my humor as dark... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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