First map produced of universe 11 billion years ago

[n2doc]

By Chris WickhamPosted 2012/11/13 at 2:52 am EST

LONDON, Nov. 13, 2012 (Reuters) — An international team of astronomers has produced the first map of the universe as it was 11 billion years ago, filling a gap between the Big Bang and the rapid expansion that followed.


An illustration showing how SDSS-III was able to measure the distant universe. Light rays from distant quasars (dots at left) are partially absorbed as they pass through clouds of intergalactic hydrogen gas (centrE). CREDIT: Zosia Rostomian, LBNL; Nic Ross, BOSS Lyman-alpha team, LBNL; and Springel et al, Virgo Consortium and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics


The study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, shows the universe went through a phase roughly three billion years after the Big Bang when expansion actually started to slow, before the force of so-called 'dark energy' kicked in and sent galaxies accelerating away from each other.

Much is known about the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang from studies of its afterglow in the cosmic background radiation, and its accelerating expansion over several billion years can be seen with a look at the way distant galaxies are moving.

"Only now are we finally seeing its adolescence... just before it underwent a growth spurt," said Mat Pieri at the University of Portsmouth in Britain, one of the authors of the study.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre8ac004-us-space-universe-map/

[lalalu]

1. I have trouble with maps.

I hope they come out with an animated video.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. silly me. I read it wrong and got my numbers mixed up -

I was expecting to see some drawing on a cave wall

[sakabatou]

3. It'll be tough getting any pre-inflation maps

If that's what they're trying to get next.

[gtar100]

4. It's quite an amazing notion that the universe as it is now, everywhere,

is currently impossible for us to see. We only get a glimpse of time passed so, so long ago. So much is going on now, it's alive in all directions. A single lifetime is so insufficient to explore all the questions our minds can conceive. But just maybe the force and power of the universe that brings into existence self-awareness wants to know just as badly as any one individual does. After all, where did this yearning for love, knowledge, adventure, happiness, and justice come from in the first place? No religion or mythology on earth truly answers that in full.