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90% of the Universe Found Hiding In Plain View
The Bad Astronomer writes "As much as 90% of previously hidden galaxies in the distant Universe have been found by astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Previous surveys had looked for distant (10 billion light years away) galaxies by searching in a wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms — distant young galaxies should be blasting out this light, but very few were detected. The problem is that the ultraviolet light never gets out of the galaxies, so we never see them. In this new study, astronomers searched a different wavelength emitted by hydrogen, and voila, ten times as many galaxies could be seen, meaning 90% of them had been missed before."
weren't people wondering where 90% of the Universe's mass went? So they started into 'dark matter' and other voodoo stuff. Now that there's been a, what, 10-fold increase in galaxies, and I assume galaxies are a bit heavy (hey, I'm not against fat galaxies, they're just massively gifted), does that answer the 'mass of the Universe' question, or is there more stuff missing still?
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So what of the theory that the Universe is composed of 90% dark matter that we can't see? Since we just found another 90% of the Universe, does that toss it all right out the window?
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
... is the same figure used to justify the initial claims for dark matter.
Several initial sources claimed that there had to be abundant non-baryonic matter making up much of the universe, as otherwise, there would have to be about ten times as much normal matter as we were observing, and that, of course was absurd. So quite possibly this is so long to dark matter! Next question is, is there still any reason to postulate dark energy with the new values for average density and so on this will produce? Don't say goodbye to dark energy just yet, but expect some significant revisions.
Who is John Cabal?
On your head! Duh!
If this is the solution to the dark matter question, then all those astronomers and astrophysicists have been disturbingly myopic. I studied astrophysics in college for two years and it is precisely this kind of ass-hatted, onanistic speculation which convinced me to switch to comp sci. I really love cosmology, it's just such a shame when we continue to see such fail.
I want my teleportation machine and now I'm never gonna get it.
Shit, man... he had to change his liver!
"Apple. Shit different."
/. is starting to resemble Digg more and more every day.
Man, you truly must be the last person on earth to learn they merged more than four months ago already.
You did doubt for a second, didn't you?