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ASTRONOMERS DEAL WITH OUTRAGEOUS PHENOMENA
MARCH 23, 2016
Even for scientists accustomed to big things, some observations seem too outrageous to explain.
Outrageous Luminosity
Astronomers report most ‘outrageously’ luminous galaxies ever observed (Science Daily). Just how outrageous are the new observations of superluminous galaxies?
Astronomers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have observed the most luminous galaxies ever seen in the Universe, objects so bright that established descriptors such as “ultra-” and “hyper-luminous” used to describe previously brightest known galaxies don’t even come close. Lead author and undergraduate Kevin Harrington says, “We’ve taken to calling them ‘outrageously luminous’ among ourselves, because there is no scientific term to apply.”
Previous luminous galaxies were dubbed “ultra-luminous” if they were estimated to have a trillion times the luminosity of the sun. What do you call something that has 100 trillion? That’s what they found from a mountaintop observatory in Mexico and verified with two orbiting telescopes.
Yun adds, “The galaxies we found were not predicted by theory to exist; they’re too big and too bright, so no one really looked for them before.” Discovering them will help astronomers understand more about the early Universe. “Knowing that they really do exist and how much they have grown in the first 4 billion years since the Big Bang helps us estimate how much material was there for them to work with. Their existence teaches us about the process of collecting matter and of galaxy formation. They suggest that this process is more complex than many people thought.”
Some of the brightness may be an artifact of gravitational lensing, the article goes on to say. But something outrageous is happening at the objects themselves. “We still don’t know how many tens to hundreds of solar masses of gas can be converted into stars so efficiently in these objects, and studying these objects might help us to find out.”
Heavy Thoughts About Heavy Elements
Current theory about supernova explosions can only account for the creation of some elements in the periodic table. “But there’s a hole in our understanding,” states an article about this on PhysOrg. Heavier elements (gold, platinum, uranium and others) require a theoretical process called the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process). According to this model, heavy elements get built up rapidly from lighter seed nuclei.
NOTE ( From Lou): the article is NOT saying that these galaxies are 4 billions years old. They are saying that they are so far away that they were formed 4 billions years after the Beginning ( Big Bang). So we are seeing the light from these galaxies that took almost 10 billion years to get to the earth and we are seeing what they looked like almost 10 billion years ago.
MARCH 23, 2016
Even for scientists accustomed to big things, some observations seem too outrageous to explain.
Outrageous Luminosity
Astronomers report most ‘outrageously’ luminous galaxies ever observed (Science Daily). Just how outrageous are the new observations of superluminous galaxies?
Astronomers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have observed the most luminous galaxies ever seen in the Universe, objects so bright that established descriptors such as “ultra-” and “hyper-luminous” used to describe previously brightest known galaxies don’t even come close. Lead author and undergraduate Kevin Harrington says, “We’ve taken to calling them ‘outrageously luminous’ among ourselves, because there is no scientific term to apply.”
Previous luminous galaxies were dubbed “ultra-luminous” if they were estimated to have a trillion times the luminosity of the sun. What do you call something that has 100 trillion? That’s what they found from a mountaintop observatory in Mexico and verified with two orbiting telescopes.
Yun adds, “The galaxies we found were not predicted by theory to exist; they’re too big and too bright, so no one really looked for them before.” Discovering them will help astronomers understand more about the early Universe. “Knowing that they really do exist and how much they have grown in the first 4 billion years since the Big Bang helps us estimate how much material was there for them to work with. Their existence teaches us about the process of collecting matter and of galaxy formation. They suggest that this process is more complex than many people thought.”
Some of the brightness may be an artifact of gravitational lensing, the article goes on to say. But something outrageous is happening at the objects themselves. “We still don’t know how many tens to hundreds of solar masses of gas can be converted into stars so efficiently in these objects, and studying these objects might help us to find out.”
Heavy Thoughts About Heavy Elements
Current theory about supernova explosions can only account for the creation of some elements in the periodic table. “But there’s a hole in our understanding,” states an article about this on PhysOrg. Heavier elements (gold, platinum, uranium and others) require a theoretical process called the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process). According to this model, heavy elements get built up rapidly from lighter seed nuclei.
NOTE ( From Lou): the article is NOT saying that these galaxies are 4 billions years old. They are saying that they are so far away that they were formed 4 billions years after the Beginning ( Big Bang). So we are seeing the light from these galaxies that took almost 10 billion years to get to the earth and we are seeing what they looked like almost 10 billion years ago.
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