The Universe Could Be Larger Than Previously Thought

[Menydh]

The Universe Could Be Larger Than Previously Thought

Universe Today
August 7th, 2006

Astronomers recently calculated the distance to the relatively nearby galaxy M33 (aka the Triangulum Galaxy) as being about 15% further than previously estimated. They analyzed the distance using several telescopes, fine tuning their instruments very carefully. This measurement means that the Hubble constant - which astronomers use to measure distances in the Universe - could be off as well. The Universe might actually be 15% larger than previously believed.

Galaxy M33 - image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/GALEX

That intergalactic road trip to Triangulum is going to take a little longer than you had planned.

An Ohio State University astronomer and his colleagues have determined that the Triangulum Galaxy, otherwise known as M33, is actually about 15 percent farther away from our galaxy than previously measured.

This finding implies that the Hubble constant, a number that astronomers rely on to calculate a host of factors — including the size and age of the universe — could be significantly off the mark as well.

That means that the universe could be 15 percent bigger and 15 percent older than any previous calculations suggested.

The astronomers came to this conclusion after they invented a new method for calculating intergalactic distances, one that is more precise and much simpler than standard methods. Kris Stanek, associate professor of astronomy at Ohio State, and his coauthors describe the method in a paper to appear in the Astrophysical Journal (astro-ph/0606279).

In 1929, Edwin Hubble formulated the cosmological distance law that determines the Hubble constant. Scientists have disagreed about the exact value of the constant over the years, but the current value has been accepted since the 1950s. Astronomers have discovered other cosmological parameters since then, but the Hubble constant and its associated methods for calculating distance haven’t changed.

“The Hubble constant used to be the one parameter that we knew pretty well, and now it’s lagging behind. Now we know some things quite a bit better than we know the Hubble constant,” Stanek said. “Ten years ago, we didn’t even know that dark energy existed. Now we know how much dark energy there is — better than we know the Hubble constant, which has been around for almost 80 years.”

Still, Stanek said he and his colleagues didn’t start this work in order to change the value of the Hubble constant. They just wanted to find a simpler way to calculate distances.

To calculate the distance to a faraway galaxy using the Hubble constant, astronomers have to work through several complex steps of related equations, and incorporate distances to closer objects, such as the Large Magellanic Cloud.

“In every step you accumulate errors,” Stanek said. “We wanted an independent measure of distance — a single step that will one day help with measuring dark energy and other things.”

The new method took 10 years to develop. They studied M33 in optical and infrared wavelengths, checking and re-checking measurements that are normally taken for granted. They used telescopes of all sizes, from fairly small 1-meter telescopes to the largest in the world — the 10-meter telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii .

“Technologically, we had to be on the cutting edge to make this work, but the basic idea is very simple,” he said.

They studied two of the brightest stars in M33, which are part of a binary system, meaning that the stars orbit each other. As seen from Earth, one star eclipses the other every five days.

They measured the mass of the stars, which told them how bright those stars would appear if they were nearby. But the stars actually appear dimmer because they are far away. The difference between the intrinsic brightness and the apparent brightness told them how far away the stars were — in a single calculation.

To their surprise, the distance was 15 percent farther than they expected: about 3 million light-years away, instead of 2.6 million light-years as determined by the Hubble constant.

If this new distance measurement is correct, then the true value of the Hubble constant may be 15 percent smaller — and the universe may be 15 percent bigger and older — than previously thought.

“Our margin of error is now 6 percent, which is actually pretty good,” Stanek said. Next, they may do the same calculation for another star system in M33, to reduce their error further, or they may look at the nearby Andromeda galaxy. The kind of binary systems they are looking for are relatively rare, he said, and getting all the necessary measurements to repeat the calculation would probably take at least another two years.


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[Savage]

How large is the big bang?

Seen from inside its quite wide. But from outside about the size of a spark.
Measures as large and small looses its meaning in the limitless space.

One may find oneself falling, in space, with fingers feeling tiny tiny, then bigger than mountains, the meaning of measures collapsing in paradoxal contrapoint, where the smalles becomes the biggest and vice versa.

This corn of sand may contain limitless worlds, with inumerous inhabitants, in their microworlds, one of their sandcorns may for all we know contain universes like this galaxy we know here?...

Our world may be like the substance of the atoms of a sandcorn on a football in a galaxy faaaar beyond.

I also think I remember, that when the universe was created, as it is every second, it should be within a spark, to save energy. The painful process of diving into the spark spiritual, mental, emotional and physical, and staying here for a "while", is what we call life.

From inside, the spark is limitless wide, F.I.A.T. L.U.X.

This is also the secret meaning of the Egyptian Ankh. Also the letter Tau.

Circle, then cross, then cirlcle, and so on...
Circle is the potential , and cross is the actual. manifested, this world.

Time is only actual within the spark, as a part of the conditions of a process.
So is the meaning of physical measures in this context..