Ya’ll know the laws of physics are symmetrical–they have no preferred direction. The speed of light (and more or less everything else) is the same whichever way it is pointin’, right?
So it’d be surprisin’ if the universe turned out to be asymmetric, shockin’ if it had a prefered axis and stunnin’ if it had a direction in which things were different.
But it’s beginning to look that way. Two years ago, you could hear astro-jaws dropping all over the planet when a couple of upstarts suggested that data from a giant space-thermometer called the Wilkinson Microwave Cosmic Anisotropy Probe or WMAP looked as if it were aligned in a certain direction.
A-babblin and a-brayin, critics pointed out that the alignment matched the galactic co-ordinate system and so was probably an imprint of the Milky Way. Subtract this properly and the alignment would go away.
But it didn’t. And that left theorists a-scratchin their heads and a-rubbin their chins in amazement.
Now they gotta do a whole lot more a-broodin and a-worryin. Michael “Bongo” Longo at the University of Michigan has spotted another kind of alignment by a-meterin and a-measurin the orientation of 200,000 elliptical galaxies. That’s a lotta galaxies and it turns out they’re all aligned in the same direction too. We just ain’t noticed before now.
That’s put a ‘gator in the pool.
So what’s been causin this cosmic foxtrot? Ain’t nobody sure but we’re gonna be hearin a lot more about it in the weeks and months to come. Betcha!
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0708.4013: The Axis of Opportunity: The Large-Scale Correlation of Elliptical Galaxies
I don’t suppose they’ve identified an object in the direction which everything seems to be pointing in, have they?
I think this behavior can be explained, if you look at the galaxies as satellites of a bigger element.
Imaging a flat CD, and the galaxies in the surface of the CD, each one looking to a different axis. Now put to spin the CD, you will start to notice the elements in the surface to align to a given axis, just because of the forces that start to come as they rotate. Probably the Universe is not only expanding, but also rotating, it will take probably thousands of years to determine that given our relative point of view.
By xybre on Aug 30, 2007 | Reply
> I don’t suppose they’ve identified an object
> in the direction which everything seems to be
> pointing in, have they?
I don’t suppose “your mom” is the answer you’re looking for, is it?
> I don’t suppose they’ve identified an object
> in the direction which everything seems to be
> pointing in, have they?
Thinking in the other direction – what caused them to point the other way?
The imagery that comes to my mind is the mysterious Tunguska explosion in Siberia. All the trees fell down aligned as if finely-combed radiating outwards from the center of the explosion.
Could the galactic alignment be the result of a great “Cosmic Tunguska explosion”?
There is always a bigger structure, which “we” are part of – for all values of “we”. We are getting a glimpse at the next outer structure.
If we don’t see homogeneity it’s because we can’t see far enough.
Let’s see if I can get the accent right:
Y’all should take a peek at th’ paper again and see that it has been withdrawn. Seems our friend Bongo failed to correct for some bias or another.
Wow. When do you think Arxiv is going to require people to write papers in this idiom?
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