Slashdot Mirror
Mysterious "Cold Spot": Fingerprint of Largest Structure In the Universe?
astroengine writes At the furthest-most reaches of the observable universe lies one of the most enigmatic mysteries of modern cosmology: the cosmic microwave background (CMB) Cold Spot. Discovered in 2004, this strange feature etched into the primordial echo of the Big Bang has been the focus of many hypotheses — could it be the presence of another universe? Or is it just instrumental error? Now, astronomers may have acquired strong evidence as to the Cold Spot's origin and, perhaps unsurprisingly, no multiverse hypothesis is required. But it's not instrumental error either. It could be a vast "supervoid" around 1.8 billion light-years wide that is altering the characteristics of the CMB radiation traveling through it.
"vast supervoid around 1.8 billion light-years wide"
Wow, that must have been some BIG super-collider accident.
Do you ever feel dirty for replying offtopic to useless/joke posts to get your "serious" post to show up higher on the list?
2. Door out of the Holodeck.
3. Kolob
4. Missing dryer socks
5. Where another LHC went "south"
6. Where God divided by zero
7. Where the Death Star exploded, taking out the neighborhood
8. Universe's belly button
9. Universe's tail end orifice
Table-ized A.I.
At the furthest-most reaches
Furthest-most? When "furthest" is just not far enough?
This is the worstest made up word I've seen in a long time.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
And the definition of "Universe", from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Bigger than the biggest thing ever and then some. Much bigger than that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, real "wow, that's big," time. Infinity is just so big that, by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy. Gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied by staggeringly huge is the sort of concept we're trying to get across here.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
We've had those before, where certain galaxies distort the emissions quite a bit.
I'll wait for the follow up science before I "worry".
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Ca a void be a structure? That doesn't seem like it would compile.
Maybe it's actually a wet spot - left on the sheets from the creation of the universe.
So Dr. Astrophysicist, what's that thing in space?
I don't know but I based my PHD thesis on it.
Furthest-most? When "furthest" is just not far enough?
Technically it should actually be "farthest" since it refers to a physical distance whereas "furthest" means most distant in a figurative sense. For example you say "furthest from the truth" not "farthest from the truth" but "Cape Spear is the farthest east you can go in Canada" not "furthest east". So to summarize: "furthest-most" should not have a hyphen, should not have the 'most' added since it is redundant and finally should actually be "farthest" since it refers to a physical distance.
As for the origin of the "cold spot" I understood that it was completely statistically consistent with quantum fluctuations in the early universe. So how about we rule out that explanation first before coming up with multiple universes or other crazy stuff.
The universe is full of voids - large regions of space empty of matter. Ever since the detection of the Cold Spot, it's been speculated that a "supervoid" could be responsible, but it was thought that a void that large would not fit current understandings of structure formation - essentially trading a too-cold spot in the CMB for a too-big hole in the matter distribution.
But this work, which was made public a year ago and just now got through the referee process, showed that there *is* a supervoid in the direction of the Cold Spot. They found it by looking at the distribution of galaxies in that direction. It turns out that it is a big void, but not very empty; more like a wide shallow dish than a small deep bowl. This can both explain the Cold Spot and be compatible with our understanding of how structure forms.
The universe is shaped as a donut. They have found the hole!
Farther just means further in a distance-specific context, in much the same way as taller, wider, or more voluminous all mean bigger.
It really doesn't matter if you are further away or farther away, but it does matter if you try to raise the temperature by a farther two degrees or prefer taller breasts.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.