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What Is The ”Supervoid”, The Biggest Thing in The Universe

April 21, 2015 By Matthew Slotkin Leave a Comment

Scientists discovered the most enigmatic components of modern cosmology, the the cosmic microwave background (CMB) Cold Spot, which lies at the furthest-most reaches of the observable universe.

Found in 2004, this strange space object has been the focus of many hypotheses and theories. Some believe it might be the presence of another universe. Others think it is an instrumental error. In a recent study, astronomers may have discovered strong evidence about the origin of the Cold Spot’s and, according to the the new theory, the multiverse hypothesis is not required.

When the Cold Spot was first discovered by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), scientists rapidly realized that the feature is the greatest structure ever observed in the cosmos. But with just one space telescope taking all the measurements, a fear that something like instrumental error could be responsible.

The European Planck telescope, which was also launched to analyze slight temperature changes in the CMB, also observed the Cold Spot. Despite some beliefs that the space object could be an error which comes up because our statistical analysis methods are flawed, the general hypothesis is that the Cold Spot is real.

One of the most extreme hypotheses that gives an explanation for the Cold Spot is focused around the multiverse. Derived from superstring theory, the multiverse suggests that our universe is just one of a number universes in a soup of universes. The Cold Spot could be one of the neighboring universes which squeezing up against our own.

the multiverse theory is one of the more extreme cosmological thoughts, but there are also other explanations for the Cold Spot. One such idea that now appears to have gained popularity is that of the presence of a “supervoid” in the universe between us and the Cold Spot.

This supervoid is immense, being almost 1.8 billion light-years wide. This vast supervoid is the largest structure ever discovered by humanity.

István Szapudi of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his team have found, through the combination of data collected by Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) telescope from Haleakala, Maui, and NASA’s Wide Field Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, “the largest individual structure ever identified by humanity”. According to the researchers, this structure might be behind the creation of the anomalous Cold Spot.

Image Source: NBC News

Graveyard With Thousands Of Mummies Found in Peru

April 11, 2015 By John Birks Leave a Comment

Scientists have found tens of tombs holding mummies in Peru. According to the researchers, the site of the discovery is probably a 1,200-year-old ceremonial site where conflicting settlements may have settled their scores and held religious ceremonies.

The team of researchers, which included a large group of international archaeologists, carried out the excavation works from 2004 to 2007 and retrieved over 171 mummies from small tombs and catacombs around the site which is called Tenahaha.

Justin Jennings, curator at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, was part of the excavation. He explained: “The tombs are located on small hills surrounding the site. The dead, likely numbering in the low thousands, towered over the living.”

According to the experts, the mummies had their arms folded along their chest and their knees put up to the level of their shoulders before they died. The researchers added that the dead bodies were then tied with rope and bound in layers of textile materials. The mummies have different ages. The site holds neonate fetuses, infant mummies which were buried in jars, but also many older adults.

The researchers explained that the mummified remains were found in a decayed shape, mainly because of damage from rodents and water. The experts also discovered that some mummies were broken apart by purpose. Their bones were scattered and switched between the dozen of tombs from the mortuary complex. In one such tomb the archaeologists found approximately 400 isolated human remains, including hands, feet and teeth. The scientists mentioned that the people were probably inhabitants of the nearby villages close to Tenahaha.

“Though many individuals were broken apart, others were left intact. People were moved around the tombs, but they sometimes remained bunched together, and even earth or rocks were used to separate some groups and individuals. Some grave goods were smashed apart, while others were left intact,” explained Jennings.

The mummy-filled tombs were not the only discovery that the researchers made. The international team also found numerous storerooms and communal social areas. These were special places where people could eat and share a meal.

Tenahaha and its surrounding region was the scene of many conflicts in different periods. Villages would battle each other for farming ground or for power. Tenahaha seems to be a neutral ground in this troubled land, a place where people could gather in peace.

Image Source: Museums Syndicate

Scientists Get Clearer Insight On Milky Way’s Evolution

April 10, 2015 By John Birks Leave a Comment

The evolution of our galaxy, the Milky Way, has been pieced together from pictures taken by NASA and ESA telescopes, according to a research by Texas A&M students.

Lead author Casey Papovich, said in a press release that by looking at distant galaxies, the researchers managed to observe how they looked when their light left for Earth.

“Because the galaxies are billions of light-years distant, we can see how they looked billions of years in the past”, added Papovich, who, together with postdoctoral researchers Vithal Tilvi and Ryan Quadri and almost 25 astronomers around the world spent a year examining distant galaxies similar in mass to the Milky Way.

Two programs were used to discover the most suitable galaxies, the deep sky surveys of the universe called FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE) and Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS).

The group studied more than 24,000 galaxies from the combined catalog to identify representative galaxies that had an evolving pattern similar to our Milky Way. In the next step, the scientists made a projection of how those galaxies expanded over time, which could be used just like a “film” of the Milky Way’s life from youth to middle age.

“Most stars today exist in galaxies like the Milky Way, so by studying how galaxies like our own formed, we have come to understand the most typical locations of stars in the universe. We now have the best picture of how galaxies like our own formed their stars,” said Papovich, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Papovich mentioned the research data clearly shows that the Milky Way got trough its most rapid phase of growth around 9.2 and 10 billion years ago, producing new stars at an incredible rate, approximately 30 times faster compared to today’s rhythm. In present times, the Milky Way churns out one new star per year, compared to a production of 30 each year 9.5 billion years ago. The study revealed a strong bond between star formation and growth in galaxy size.

Papovich explained that our Sun is one of the more recently formed stars, born around 5 billion years ago, a period when star formation within the Milky Way had toned down to a level that is also found today. The Sun’s late appearance may have been a good thing, allowing the growth of the planets within our solar system.

The study was supported by funding from National Science Foundation and NASA, who allowed the use of its Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. In order to carry out the research, the scientists also used ground-based telescopes, including the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile and the Magellan Baade Telescope, but also European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory.

Image Source: The Next Web

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