Rumors of a Strange Universe
Credit: High-Z Supernova Search Team, HST, NASA
Explanation: Eight years ago results were first presented indicating that most of the energy in our universe is not in stars or galaxies but is tied to space itself. In the language of cosmologists, a large cosmological constant is directly implied by new distant supernovae observations. Suggestions of a cosmological constant (lambda) are not new – they have existed since the advent of modern relativistic cosmology. Such claims were not usually popular with astronomers, though, because lambda is so unlike known universe components, because lambda’s value appeared limited by other observations, and because less-strange cosmologies without lambda had previously done well in explaining the data. What is noteworthy here is the seemingly direct and reliable method of the observations and the good reputations of the scientists conducting the investigations. Over the past eight years, independent teams of astronomers have continued to accumulate data that appears to confirm the unsettling result. The above picture of a supernova that occurred in 1994 on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy was taken by one of these collaborations.
APOD Editor to Discuss “Best of APOD 2006” Pictures in NYC on January 5
The 9.28 sprinter might be there…
With 3 legs …
If you look closely in the top left hand corner of the picture you can see a picture of Jesus, Santa Claus, and Elvis enjoying a pint of Guinness.
Joking aside, pictures such as these remind me of the quote:
“Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both ideas are overwhelming.”
There WAS a 9.2 sprinter there but She got sucked into the vortex of the black hole at the centre of that galaxy. But, anyway, the 9.2 was cosmic-wind-assisted. Oh yeah, that time was the mile split.