Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time

[G_j]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090422/sc_space/giantmysteryblobdiscoveredneardawnoftime

Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time

– Wed Apr 22, 3:22 pm ET

A newly found primordial blob may represent the most massive object ever discovered in the early universe, researchers announced today.

The gas cloud, spotted from 12.9 billion light-years away, could signal the earliest stages of galaxy formation back when the universe was just 800 million years old.

"I have never heard about any objects that could be resolved at this distance," said Masami Ouchi, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, Calif. "It's kind of record-breaking."

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). An object 12.9 billion light-years away is seen as it existed 12.9 billion years ago, and the light is just now arriving.

The cloud predates similar blobs, known as Lyman-Alpha blobs, which existed when the universe was 2 billion to 3 billion years old. Researchers named their new find Himiko, after an ancient Japanese queen with an equally murky past.
Himiko holds more than 10 times as much mass as the next largest object found in the early universe, or roughly the equivalent mass of 40
billion suns. At 55,000 light years across, it spans about half the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Lyman-Alpha blobs remain a mystery because existing telescopes have a hard time peering so far back to nearly the dawn of the universe.
Himiko sits right on the doorstep of an era called the reionization epoch, which lasted between 200 million and 1 billion years after the Big Bang. That's when the universe had just emerged from its cosmic dark ages and had begun brightening through the formation of stars and galaxies. Hot, energized hydrogen gas from that time period has allowed astronomers to begin seeing some objects — as much good as it does to squint at such fuzzy blobs.

..more..

[MADem]

1. I love it when science uses words like "blobs!" nt

[Hugabear]

2. That's no blob. That's Rush Limbaugh's ass.

It's just so massive, it bends light, space, and time and only looks like it is billions of light-years away. Don't get too close to it, or you'll be sucked in to its black hole. Along with any oxycontin you might have on you.

[Maine-ah]

4. DUZY

Where do I report you?

:rofl:

[havocmom]

9. You dash off a PM to JeffR

One nomination per week limit ;)

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. Maybe they're some of Limbaugh's ancestors.

[Canuckistanian]

5. How do they KNOW it's exactly 12.9 billion ly away?

What is the measuring technique they use to estimate such a distant object?

[Hugabear]

6. Do you mean as opposed to 12.899999 billion light-years away?

Don't ask me, I assume they have their methods.

[MilesColtrane]

7. Red shift

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Shift

[Canuckistanian]

11. Thanks

I knew that redshifts could be used to measure relative motion, but I never knew it could also be used to measure cosmological expansion.

[gulfcoastliberal]

15. Halton Arp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halton_Arp

[MilesColtrane]

18. yeah...that's not working out too well for him, is it?

[gulfcoastliberal]

21. More like the Church of Astronomy exiles any heretics that show the BB may be wrong.

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. Google "Azathoth," and hold on to your sanity. n/t

[havocmom]

10. ah, summer reading inspiration, just perfect for afternoons in a hammock, thanks!

;)

[derby378]

12. Ia!

I have got to buy a plush Cthulhu doll one of these days...

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Hello Cthulhu

http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2003-11-30

[Uben]

14. Where's Steve McQueen when you need him?

Oh yeah, he's dead....rats!

[SoCalDem]

16. Limbaugh Family Evolutionary Origins Found

:rofl:

[SoCalDem]

17. Limbaugh Family Evolutionary Origins Found

:rofl:

[alfredo]

19. An image of the blob

[Vinca]

20. John Belushi . . . he's back!