Whoops! Did the "Designer" forget something?

<image at site>


---
NRAO

Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe

Whoops! Did the "Designer" forget something?

<image at site>

---
NRAO

Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe

Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a
billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars,
galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." While
earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure
of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even
expected to find one this size," said Lawrence Rudnick of the University
of Minnesota. Rudnick, along with Shea Brown and Liliya R. Williams,
also of the University of Minnesota, reported their findings in a paper
accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers have known for years that, on large scales, the Universe has
voids largely empty of matter. However, most of these voids are much
smaller than the one found by Rudnick and his colleagues. In addition,
the number of discovered voids decreases as the size increases.

"What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies
or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the
Universe," Williams said.

The astronomers drew their conclusion by studying data from the NRAO VLA
Sky Survey (NVSS), a project that imaged the entire sky visible to the
Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, part of the National Science
Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Their careful
study of the NVSS data showed a remarkable drop in the number of
galaxies in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus.

"We already knew there was something different about this spot in the
sky," Rudnick said. The region had been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot,"
because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
radiation made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP)
satellite, launched by NASA in 2001. The CMB, faint radio waves that are
the remnant radiation from the Big Bang, is the earliest "baby picture"
available of the Universe. Irregularities in the CMB show structures
that existed only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.

The WMAP satellite measured temperature differences in the CMB that are
only millionths of a degree. The cold region in Eridanus was discovered
in 2004.

Astronomers wondered if the cold spot was intrinsic to the CMB, and thus
indicated some structure in the very early Universe, or whether it could
be caused by something more nearby through which the CMB had to pass on
its way to Earth. Finding the dearth of galaxies in that region by
studying NVSS data resolved that question.

"Although our surprising results need independent confirmation, the
slightly colder temperature of the CMB in this region appears to be
caused by a huge hole devoid of nearly all matter roughly 6-10 billion
light-years from Earth," Rudnick said.

How does a lack of matter cause a cooler temperature in the Big Bang's
remnant radiation as seen from Earth?

Photons of the CMB gain a small amount of energy when they pass through
a region of space populated by matter. This effect is caused by the
enigmatic "dark energy" that is accelerating the expansion of the
Universe. This gain in photon energy makes the CMB appear slightly
warmer in that direction. When the photons pass through an empty void,
they lose a small amount of energy from this effect, and so the CMB
radiation passing through such a region appears cooler.

The acceleration of the Universe's expansion, and thus dark energy, were
discovered less than a decade ago. The physical properties of dark
energy are unknown, though it is by far the most abundant form of energy
in the Universe today. Learning its nature is one of the most
fundamental current problems in astrophysics.

The NVSS imaged the roughly 82 percent of the sky visible from the New
Mexico site of the VLA. The survey consists of 217,446 individual
observations that consumed 2,940 hours of telescope time between 1993
and 1997. A set of 2,326 images was produced from the data, and these
images are available via the NRAO Web site. The survey also produced a
catalog of more than 1.8 million individual objects identifiable in the
images. The NVSS has been cited in more than 1,200 scientific papers.

NASA's WMAP satellite, using microwave amplifiers produced by NRAO's
Central Development Laboratory, has yielded a wealth of new information
about the age and history of the Universe, the emergence of the first
stars, and the composition of the Universe. WMAP results have been
extensively cited by scientists in a wide variety of astrophysical
specialties.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National
Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated
Universities, Inc. This research at the University of Minnesota is
supported by individual investigator grants from the NSF and NASA. .
---http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/coldspot/
--
John #1782

"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be
white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."

- Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) Founder of the Jesuit Order.

Whoops! Did the "Designer" forget something?

<image at site>

---
NRAO

Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe

Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a
billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter

Whoops! Did the "Designer" forget something?

<image at site>


---
NRAO

Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe

Whoops! Did the "Designer" forget something?

<image at site>


---
NRAO

Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe

Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a
billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars,
galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." While
earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure
of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even
expected to find one this size," said Lawrence Rudnick of the University
of Minnesota. Rudnick, along with Shea Brown and Liliya R. Williams,
also of the University of Minnesota, reported their findings in a paper
accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers have known for years that, on large scales, the Universe has
voids largely empty of matter. However, most of these voids are much
smaller than the one found by Rudnick and his colleagues. In addition,
the number of discovered voids decreases as the size increases.

"What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies
or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the
Universe," Williams said.

The astronomers drew their conclusion by studying data from the NRAO VLA
Sky Survey (NVSS), a project that imaged the entire sky visible to the
Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, part of the National Science
Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Their careful
study of the NVSS data showed a remarkable drop in the number of
galaxies in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus.

"We already knew there was something different about this spot in the
sky," Rudnick said. The region had been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot,"
because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
radiation made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP)
satellite, launched by NASA in 2001. The CMB, faint radio waves that are
the remnant radiation from the Big Bang, is the earliest "baby picture"
available of the Universe. Irregularities in the CMB show structures
that existed only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.

The WMAP satellite measured temperature differences in the CMB that are
only millionths of a degree. The cold region in Eridanus was discovered
in 2004.

Astronomers wondered if the cold spot was intrinsic to the CMB, and thus
indicated some structure in the very early Universe, or whether it could
be caused by something more nearby through which the CMB had to pass on
its way to Earth. Finding the dearth of galaxies in that region by
studying NVSS data resolved that question.

"Although our surprising results need independent confirmation, the
slightly colder temperature of the CMB in this region appears to be
caused by a huge hole devoid of nearly all matter roughly 6-10 billion
light-years from Earth," Rudnick said.

How does a lack of matter cause a cooler temperature in the Big Bang's
remnant radiation as seen from Earth?

Photons of the CMB gain a small amount of energy when they pass through
a region of space populated by matter. This effect is caused by the
enigmatic "dark energy" that is accelerating the expansion of the
Universe. This gain in photon energy makes the CMB appear slightly
warmer in that direction. When the photons pass through an empty void,
they lose a small amount of energy from this effect, and so the CMB
radiation passing through such a region appears cooler.

The acceleration of the Universe's expansion, and thus dark energy, were
discovered less than a decade ago. The physical properties of dark
energy are unknown, though it is by far the most abundant form of energy
in the Universe today. Learning its nature is one of the most
fundamental current problems in astrophysics.

The NVSS imaged the roughly 82 percent of the sky visible from the New
Mexico site of the VLA. The survey consists of 217,446 individual
observations that consumed 2,940 hours of telescope time between 1993
and 1997. A set of 2,326 images was produced from the data, and these
images are available via the NRAO Web site. The survey also produced a
catalog of more than 1.8 million individual objects identifiable in the
images. The NVSS has been cited in more than 1,200 scientific papers.

NASA's WMAP satellite, using microwave amplifiers produced by NRAO's
Central Development Laboratory, has yielded a wealth of new information
about the age and history of the Universe, the emergence of the first
stars, and the composition of the Universe. WMAP results have been
extensively cited by scientists in a wide variety of astrophysical
specialties.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National
Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated
Universities, Inc. This research at the University of Minnesota is
supported by individual investigator grants from the NSF and NASA. .
---
http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/coldspot/
--
John #1782

"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be
white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."

- Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) Founder of the Jesuit Order.