I found an interesting paper on the subject over on the European southern observatory website:
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/e...
Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
11–20 of 252 posts
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#12I find it funny when scientific articles (esp. pop astronomy) describe something as weird, bizarre, or extremely unlikely. We're reversing the effects of gravitational lensing on a galaxy at a distance that's a significant fraction of the radius of the observable universe.
Are astronomers that confident in their models that the inferred shape of this galaxy is bizarre? I'd love to have that level confidence in software.
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#13Nice gravitational lens observation! We're hoping to use the same technique with the Sun to observe exoplanets by launching a fleet of small satellites to 547 AU (80 billion km / ~3 light days). The craft would sample the distorted Einstein ring around our Sun from that vantage point, then combine and reconstruct an image of the disk of an Earth-like exoplanet up to 100 light-years beyond, at a resolution of 25 kilom…
Not the same technique, but there are similar architectures that could be implemented far sooner.
Earth's atmosphere as a refractive telescope: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-could-be-a-...
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#14Nice gravitational lens observation! We're hoping to use the same technique with the Sun to observe exoplanets by launching a fleet of small satellites to 547 AU (80 billion km / ~3 light days). The craft would sample the distorted Einstein ring around our Sun from that vantage point, then combine and reconstruct an image of the disk of an Earth-like exoplanet up to 100 light-years beyond, at a resolution of 25 kilom…
> it’d still take 25 to 30 years for them to reach a vantage point
....
> mission designers would have to pick carefully because they could observe only a single target
It will take 30 years to get in position but then we can only look at one target? While it sounds very neat, I'd rather fund something we can use more than once, and sooner.
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#15Nice gravitational lens observation! We're hoping to use the same technique with the Sun to observe exoplanets by launching a fleet of small satellites to 547 AU (80 billion km / ~3 light days). The craft would sample the distorted Einstein ring around our Sun from that vantage point, then combine and reconstruct an image of the disk of an Earth-like exoplanet up to 100 light-years beyond, at a resolution of 25 kilom…
> it’d still take 25 to 30 years for them to reach a vantage point .... > mission designers would have to pick carefully because they could observe only a single target It will take 30 years to get in position but then we can only look at one target? While it sounds very neat, I'd rather fund something we can use more than once, and sooner.
Still valuable as a way to observe a potentially habitable planet in more detail. If we wanted to launch a probe there, it would take a lot more time!
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#16Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#17Nice gravitational lens observation! We're hoping to use the same technique with the Sun to observe exoplanets by launching a fleet of small satellites to 547 AU (80 billion km / ~3 light days). The craft would sample the distorted Einstein ring around our Sun from that vantage point, then combine and reconstruct an image of the disk of an Earth-like exoplanet up to 100 light-years beyond, at a resolution of 25 kilom…
Not the same technique, but there are similar architectures that could be implemented far sooner. Earth's atmosphere as a refractive telescope: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-could-be-a-...
Not nearly as powerful, though.
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#18I've always been puzzled by the estimated age of the universe at being 13 billion years. That's just the size of the observable universe, correct? Isn't there a future horizon beyond which light will not currently reach us?
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#19I find it funny when scientific articles (esp. pop astronomy) describe something as weird, bizarre, or extremely unlikely. We're reversing the effects of gravitational lensing on a galaxy at a distance that's a significant fraction of the radius of the observable universe. Are astronomers that confident in their models that the inferred shape of this galaxy is bizarre? I'd love to have that level confidence in softwa…
We can more readily validate gravitational lensing than any early universe physics. So my guess would be that modeling the lensing is the easy part to validate :)
Re: Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the Universe?
#20> Why is there a normal galaxy sitting at the edge of the universe? To facilitate the restaurant?
Not that anyone cares what I say, but the Restaurant is on the other end of the universe.