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.
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.
6 comments:
It seems that the more we learn, the more there is to learn. Who would guess that a mere 500 years ago most people believed the world was flat.
Yep, funny huh? Actually though that crazy idea came from Aristotle.... Then Aquinas read Aristotle and incorporated it into church thought. Augustine in 400 AD thought the world was a sphere, as spoken of in the Bible.
Heck, Job has an explaination of the water cycle on Earth. Seems G*D is a little ahead of our time!
Tongue firmly in cheek at that one!
Merry Christmas!
tmw
Hi hon! And Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah to you and yours! The dressing is made, the cranberry-orange jello is done, the mince pie is in the oven! I hope you have a TERRIFIC Christmas--it's been wonderful knowing you, and I hope to get to know you better in 2007!
Love, DONAL
Hi tmw, Very much ahead of us!! LOL! Stick to the truth and you can't go wrong:>)
Hi V, Merry Christmas to you and Happy Hanukkah! It's been a great 2006 for us bloggers huh? Lots of fun. I was going over some old posts for the fun of it, and it really is interesting to compile in a Word document/ file with all the posts and comments. Very interesting and amusing. Good friends and good conversation, although I do get a little carried away at times:>O!
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