Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On October 9, 2011 @ 8:10 am In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]Image Credit: High-Z Supernova Search Team [2], HST [3], NASA [4]
Explanation: Thirteen years ago results [5] were first presented [6] indicating that most of the energy in our universe is not in stars or galaxies but is tied to space itself. In the language of cosmologists, a large cosmological constant [7] is directly implied by new distant supernova [8]observations. Suggestions of a cosmological constant [9] (lambda) were not new [10] – they have existed since the advent of modern relativistic cosmology [11]. Such claims were not usually popular with astronomers, though, because lambda is so unlike known universe components [12], because lambda’s value appeared limited by other observations, and because less-strange cosmologies [13] without lambda had previously done well in explaining the data. What is noteworthy here is the seemingly direct and reliable method of the observations and the good reputations of thescientists conducting [14] the investigations [15]. Over the past thirteen years [16], independent teams of astronomers have continued to accumulate data that appears to confirm [17] the existence of dark energy [18] and the unsettling result of a presently accelerating universe [19]. This year, the team leaders were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics [20] for their work. The above picture [21] of a supernova that occurred in 1994 [22] on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy [23] was taken by one of these collaborations.
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/10/09/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-72/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/sn94d_highz_2508.jpg
[2] High-Z Supernova Search Team: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/oir/Research/supernova/HighZ.html
[3] HST: http://www.stsci.edu/
[4] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
[5] results: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998AAS...193.3904A
[6] first presented: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998AJ....116.1009R
[7] cosmological constant: http://super.colorado.edu/~michaele/Lambda/lambda.html
[8] supernova: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/supernovae.html
[9] cosmological constant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant
[10] not new: http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles/lrr-2001-1/
[11] modern relativistic cosmology: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmolog.htm
[12] universe components: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008ApJ...685.1297P
[13] strange cosmologies: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071021.html
[14] scientists conducting: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/oir/Research/supernova/highz/members.html
[15] the investigations: http://panisse.lbl.gov/public/
[16] past thirteen years: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980302.html
[17] confirm: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050925.html
[18] dark energy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
[19] accelerating universe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerating_universe
[20] awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/science/space/05nobel.html
[21] above picture: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/supernova//highz/figures/pictures.html
[22] 1994: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1998AGM....14..P95D
[23] spiral galaxy: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/spiral_galaxies.html
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