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n2doc

(47,953 posts)
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 12:21 PM Jun 2016

Astronomers release spectacular survey of the distant Universe


Astronomers today (28 June) released spectacular new infrared images of the distant Universe, providing the deepest view ever obtained over a large area of sky. The team, led by Prof Omar Almaini, present their results at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Nottingham.
The final data release from the Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) maps an area four times the size of the full Moon to unprecedented depth. Over 250,000 galaxies have been detected, including several hundred observed within the first billion years after the Big Bang. Astronomers around the world will use the new images to study the early stages of galaxy formation and evolution.



An image of a small section (0.4%) of the UDS field. Most of the objects in the image are very distant galaxies, observed as they were over 9 billion years ago. In the full image, 250,000 galaxies have been detected over an area of sky four times the size of the full Moon. Credit: Omar Almaini, University of Nottingham. Click for a larger image


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https://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/2877-astronomers-release-spectacular-survey-of-the-distant-universe
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brush

(53,467 posts)
1. Amazing stuff. A couple of years ago there was talk about there being multiple universes, . . .
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 12:35 PM
Jun 2016

are we back to there being one single universe now, which we were taught years ago encompassed everything?

 

immoderate

(20,885 posts)
4. Multiple universes are a plausible solution. We have access to just this one.
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 02:17 PM
Jun 2016

But it is quite spacious!

--imm

brush

(53,467 posts)
5. I never did get the multiple universe theory. Wasn't "the universe" meant to encompass everything?
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 02:19 PM
Jun 2016

Last edited Tue Jun 28, 2016, 02:49 PM - Edit history (1)

 

immoderate

(20,885 posts)
6. Yes. But the boundaries moved as our awareness grew.
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 02:51 PM
Jun 2016

The "universe" was once bound by the "firmament" which prevented the "waters above" from engulfing us. It was basically our visible solar system. The boundaries expanded. It was our galaxy, say after Ptolemy. Then, after Hubble there were many galaxies. Now, that we have established limits to the existence of the (our) universe (big bang) we can speculate about what might exist beyond that.

Even now, dark matter and dark energy are 95% of the known universe, and they were unknown when I was born.

--imm

brush

(53,467 posts)
7. Ok, but as our knowledge expanded, why wouldn't the scope of the term "the universe"?
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 02:54 PM
Jun 2016

Seems broad enough to encompass all those things you mentioned.

 

immoderate

(20,885 posts)
8. It refers to all we can currently detect.
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 03:06 PM
Jun 2016

Alternate universes, and their existence is speculative. Consider also, that they may not "be" in the same way we are. How would things look without space-time?

--imm

Socal31

(2,484 posts)
3. Billions of billions of stars and planets.
Tue Jun 28, 2016, 01:51 PM
Jun 2016

To think we are somehow the only planet containing life......ludicrous.

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