The Universe has a skeleton

[Effluo]

Found this on Yahoo! Interesting read:

Huge Galaxy Cluster Hints at Universe's Skeleton - Yahoo! News

Huge Galaxy Cluster Hints at Universe's Skeleton
SPACE.com staff

Tue Nov 3, 9:19 am ET

A gigantic, previously unknown set of galaxies has been found in the distant universe, shedding light on the underlying skeleton of the cosmos.

"Matter is not distributed uniformly in the universe," said Masayuki Tanaka, an astronomer with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) who helped discover the galactic assemblage. "In our cosmic vicinity, stars form in galaxies and galaxies usually form groups and clusters of galaxies."

But those collections of matter are just small potatoes compared to larger structures long-theorized to exist.

"The most widely accepted cosmological theories predict that matter also clumps on a larger scale in the so-called 'cosmic web,' in which galaxies, embedded in filaments stretching between voids, create a gigantic wispy structure," Tanaka said.

These filaments are millions of light-years long and constitute the skeleton of the universe: Galaxies gather around them, and immense galaxy clusters form at their intersections, lurking like giant spiders waiting for more matter to digest.

Scientists have struggled, though, to explain how the filaments come into existence. While massive filamentary structures have often been observed at relatively small distances from us, solid proof of their existence in the more distant universe has been lacking until now.

The team led by Tanaka discovered a large structure around a distant cluster of galaxies in images they had taken earlier. They have now used two major ground-based telescopes to study this structure in greater detail, measuring the distances from Earth to more than 150 galaxies, and, hence, obtaining a three-dimensional view of the structure.

The spectroscopic observations, detailed in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Journal, were performed using the VIMOS instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile and FOCAS on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

With these observations, the astronomers identified several groups of galaxies surrounding the main galaxy cluster.

The researchers were able to distinguish tens of such clumps, each typically ten times as massive as our own Milky Way galaxy — and some as much as a thousand times more massive — while they estimate that the mass of the cluster amounts to at least ten thousand times the mass of the Milky Way.

Some of the clumps are feeling the fatal gravitational pull of the cluster, and will eventually fall into it, the data suggested.

This information will allow scientists to explore how galaxies were affected by their environment at a time when the universe was much younger.

The filament is located about 6.7 billion light-years away from us and extends over at least 60 million light-years. The newly uncovered structure does probably extend farther, beyond the field probed by the team, and hence future observations have already been planned to obtain a definite measurement of its size.

[Mizango]

I knew a few days ago that when Yahoo got a hold of this shit they would fuck it up somehow.

"skeleton"

[Senoska]

This is exactly why news company's shouldn't be allowed to report on science. In before "THE UNIVERSE IS ALIVE" shit from people who don't have any background in science beyond yahoo or cnn.

[Mizango]

This is exactly why news company's shouldn't be allowed to report on science. In before "THE UNIVERSE IS ALIVE" shit from people who don't have any background in science beyond yahoo or cnn.

Exactly my point. I can see that shit happening now, as we speak.

[Pringles]

God made the universe in his image. Makes sense there's a skeleton yo.

[zoobernut]

It would be funny if Yahoo showed a hypothetical artists rendering of the universe as a giant fetus floating in space.

For some reason that scene from 2001 popped into my head when I read skeleton.

[Senoska]

God made the universe in his image. Makes sense there's a skeleton yo.

Oh, god damn it. Just wait for Kirk Cameron to get his nasty little dickfingers on this. It's deceptive wording at best. "Gravity workz, lul" isn't enough, apparently.

[Acturus]

So, filaments?

God is Spider-Man. It's that simple.

[Xno Kappa]

I think this helps to further cement the age of the universe at around 6000~8000.

[Effluo]

I wonder if the ribs would be good with BBQ sauce, or dry?

[Suited Aces]

Anyone that has ever taken acid already knows this. This shit ain't new.

[Absolutely Virtue]

It would be funny if Yahoo showed a hypothetical artists rendering of the universe as a giant white, american, christian fetus floating in space.

ftfy

[Absolutely Virtue]

also this is a pretty good explanation for spase peepole

[Mizango]

You forgot the part about the blond, mullet rocking jew wearing a white robe with brown pastel trim......as a fetus.

[Max™]

http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galfo..._037a_half.jpg

All the ways they could have described it... and they pick skeleton... nice.

[Mizango]

Yeah tell me about it. I immediately thought about the Millennium sim studies when I first read it and immediately face palmed when I saw "skeleton".

Again, Alleya's science new comic would fit nicely here.

[alt]

Max's picture reminds me more of nerve fibers personally.

[MrW]

It looks like a bunch of synapses.

In any event... God bless this creation.

[Pringles]

Max's picture reminds me more of nerve fibers personally.

Proof the universe is actually the inside of a body. We all make up the inside of a larger unknown being. This is more proof of a divine creator.

[Acturus]

Proof the universe is actually the inside of a body. We all make up the inside of a larger unknown being. This is more proof of a divine creator.

We are all just the inside of someone's bus locker.