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© 2012 AFPJapan astronomers find most distant galaxy cluster
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© 2012 AFP
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Ekkusaito
13 billion light years is just too much for my tiny mind to comprehend.
Noripinhead
I wonder if they'll ever will find the beginning of time itself: the Big Bang explosion. Try to get your mind around that one.
smithinjapan
Good on them, and very interesting from a scientific approach. Any practical applications though?
Noripinhead
It humbles you. All of human history --nay, the lifespan of the planet earth itself--is just a blink of an eye compared to the vastness of space and time. So, what's for dinner tonight?
tjguy
This announcement is another in a long tradition of mature galaxies being found earlier and earlier than expected. If this keeps up, it will mean that our understanding of the early universe needs to be revised. And then you have to ask how much we really understand about the early universe when discoveries like this keep bringing surprises. Well, they say science learns as it goes, but the question is, when does it arrive at the point where we can really say that "We now KNOW...." Whenever you hear that, beware. What they now know will surely be revised again when the next discovery is made. I'm not cutting on science, just trying to say that it has limits and there are some things we will probably never really know. Most of what we "now KNOW" in science is not tried and true knowledge, just the best effort we can make to understand the evidence we have. This is especially true when dealing with historical science that you cannot repeat or observe. You have to act like a crime investigator and try and fit the pieces together, but there are always surprises and you are always at a handicap because you didn't observe it happen and so you have to make a lot of guesses and assumptions.
cactusJack
Need to find the nearest wormhole.
OMGhontoni
I just LOVE outer space!!! Dont have a brain even a fraction of the way close enough to understanding any of it, but any talk about galaxies and planets and stars and sh1t always gets my heart pumping. WAY cool. Science geeks - you ROCK! (And God bless the guys who invented the "For Dummies" series for the rest of us!)
Ben Jack
Then shouldn't the headline say "Japanese and US astronomers find most distant galaxy cluster?"
Anyway, very cool discovery!
SimondB
So the images we are seeing took 12.2 billion years to reach us while travelling at the speed of light. Gives a whole new perspective on distance. But surely you could never look at the begining of time because as you look time is passing and it is always moving away.
BTW, is a billion a milion X million? Because in Uk the calculation of a million is different to that in USA. Anyone know?
lostrune2
That's why these, like the Theory of the Big Bang, are called "theories" because they are subject to be modified as new facts or evidence come along.
But it's good when scientists around the world get to share equipment and facilities. It facilitates the faster scientific advancements by being able to pair scientists with interesting ideas with the proper equipment/facility to test those ideas.
Kenneth Groves
Simon, a billion is a thousand million.
1 million = 1,000 x 1,000 1 billion = 1,000 x 1,000,000 1 trillion = 1,000 x 1,000,000,000
All numbers too big to see clearly in our minds.
Herve Nmn L'Eisa
Far out, man! I mean REALLY far OUT! All this space talk gives me the munchies, man.
Serrano
"a cluster of galaxies 12.72 billion light years from Earth... it was still less than one billion years into its 13.7 billion year history..."
This is possible, and fascinating.
"the Big Bang, the birth of the universe"
I dunno, what was before the birth of the universe? Nothing?
Serrano
"far out"
Har!
hatsoff
We know so much, and at the same time we know so little. String theory, M theory, wormholes....Carl Sagan said we are made of starstuff. We are amazing, the universe is amazing. As for the multiverse, who knows? Very humbling stuff.
"We don't know what 96% of the universe is made of - we don't understand something fundamental." (Professor Brian Cox)
Patric Spohn
If everything that happens travels away with the speed of light, everything that has happened in time could be captured by such or other device or other timelines of other people can be explored.
Serrano
If we could transport a super-duper powerful telescope many light years from Earth and point it at the Earth, we could see what happened many years ago, as long as there weren't any dang clouds in the way.
wtfjapan
@serrano but youd have to transport the telescope there faster than the speed of light, so you could view the earth in the past. Einstein said that this would be impossible!?
Frank Vaughn
Astronomy is awesome!
Za-zaam Flash
Many variants and divers techniques on the age and calculation of the cosmos itself persist. As the universe expands and galaxies merge we wonder how did we get here? Perhaps there is a large gravitational lens preventing the real beginning of the universe from being observed. Remote sensing these events requires a good portion a time. The mirror on the subaru telescope took 7 years to polish. I am sure there is life out there of course not as we know as being alive(respiration,reproduction, etc) but the earth does appear such a grand a destination as we may like to believe.
jforce
"Japanese Astronomers find most distant galaxy cluster" ... still searching for mates.
Ewan Huzarmy
Hmm , I wonder what the 'nothing' at the end would look like ?
gaijinTechie
No. Graduate University for Advanced Studies is a translation from Sougou Kenkyu Daigakuin Daigaku, or Sokendai, based in Hayama, Kanagawa, and the comment "state-run" is a reference to "kokuritsu", not U.S.
But congrats on the find anyway!
Brian Wheway
I bet Tescos have got a superstore there!!