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Astronomers Find Most Distant Protocluster of Galaxies
The Bad Astronomer writes "Using the monster 8.2-meter Subaru telescope, astronomers have identified the most distant cluster of galaxies ever found: a collection of galaxies at a staggering distance of 12.7 billion light years. This is the most distant cluster ever seen that has been confirmed spectroscopically (PDF). Technically, it's a protocluster, since it's so young — seen only a billion years after the Big Bang itself — the cluster must still be in the process of formation."
It is incredible what we can accomplish as humans, imagine if we did not waste trillions on useless battles for the hear and minds of primitive retarded people with stone age believes.
Actually look at the Subaru Car logo and consider the meaning of "Subaru" and you'll see why the discovery of a galaxy cluster is very fitting for the Subaru telescope...
Whenever one of these astronomy articles comes up about seeing a galaxy or cluster "near the big bang", there's one fundamental question which has always bothered me. . .
We are told that the universe is expanding, and has been expanding for about 14 Billion years. This means that everything was much closer together back 13 Billion years ago (when the summary says we are seeing the light from). Also, light travels much faster than the universe expands. So. . . why didn't the light pass us billions of years ago?
I realize that light takes time to travel, and that's the idea behind the idea that we can "look back in time" when we look at very distant astronomical objects. . . but. . . again, why didn't the light PASS US billions of years ago, since light expands outward faster than the universe expands outward? Wouldn't the universe need to have been expanding at almost the speed of light, for us to just now receive light from 13 Bn years ago? Well, that is, that the expansion would have had to happen at about 13/14 C?
Oh come on, do you guys just make this stuff up as you go? ;-)
No, seriously, I actually understood that we were seeing what was there 12.7 billion years ago -- WTF does it mean then? I thought this was what existed 12.7 billion years ago from our point of view.
That sounds dirty, and I'm not sure if it actually sheds any, er, light on this.
I think this actually confirms what I knew in university -- astrophysicists must spend much of their time drunk in order to be able to reconcile this stuff with everything else.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.