Slashdot Mirror
Voyager Clue Points To Origin of the Axis of Evil
KentuckyFC writes "Cosmologists have been scratching their heads over the discovery of a pattern imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, the radiation left over from the Big Bang. This pattern, the so-called Axis of Evil, just shouldn't be there. Now an independent researcher from Canada says the pattern may be caused by the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space where there is a sharp change in pressure, temperature and density of ions in space. Known as the termination shock, astronomers had thought this boundary was spherical. But last year, data from the Voyager spacecraft which have crossed the boundary, showed it was asymmetric. The new thinking is that the termination shock acts like a giant lens, refracting light that passes through it. Any distortion of the lens ought to show up as a kind of imprinted pattern on an otherwise random image. But the real eye-opener is that as the shape of the termination shock changes (as the Solar Wind varies, for example), so too should the pattern in the microwave background. And there is tentative evidence that this is happening too (abstract)."
It all sounds very interesting and important and technical, but what does it all mean? Dammit! What does it all mean, man?
I tried to understand this, but it was too (abstract)
More music, fewer hits
until Voyager returns from the edge as Vyger and answers all our questions or are we in an alternate timeline now?
"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." -Thomas Szasz
Has anyone checked Iran, Iraq and North Korea for traces of this radiation?
So does this mean torture's ok and waterboarding might prevent the heat death of the universe?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
So now we have to deploy a telescope outside the termination shock to get accurate pictures of the Universe? And we just spent all that money upgrading Hubble!
Gee, I can't see how being able to map out the boundary of the Solar System we live in could be beneficial to science. We should all crawl back into our caves and shine our clubs for the coming Ice Age.
Tell that to the audiophiles.
What the hell? You weren't supposed to explain something complex in simple terms anyone can understand. This is Slashdot. You were supposed to be condescending and use lots of obscure jargon and abbreviations.
For example:
"Idiot! RTFA! If you didn't spend your life just sitting on your fat ass (I bet you are a virgin too) instead of attempting to read the article you would've CLEARLY read that the Zegot axis is the determinate for the UU' and OO' deviations. This is why light is obscured by Heymann variations in a GERT framework. There, even a moron like yourself can understand that."
Next time at least toss in a reference to a cultish Sci-Fi show that is about to be canceled or a jab at someone's choice of operating system.
Fixed
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
I took a cow to church one Sunday. After, I asked it what it thought. It said it was Moooving.
rewriting history since 2109
I could've sworn that 'yaw' was the axis of evil.
That green slime had it coming.
Let's test that theory: start a rumor that Michael Vick is starting a website called "slashdog".
Table-ized A.I.