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The Big Ring and the Nube

17 January 2024
Astronomy

At https://www.livescience.com/space/a-big-cosmological-mystery-newfound-cosmic-corkscrew-defies-our-understanding-of-the-universe  …  astronomers have discovered a cosmic ring – a gigantic  spiral of galaxies and galaxy clusters. It is 1.3 billion light years wide and has a circumference of 4 billion light years. The ring is situated in the sky roughly at the point of the Bootes constellation. It is just up the road from the 3.3 billion light years wide Giant Arc. This was discovered only in 2021. Neither are  easy to explain, we are informed.

Both the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are so large they could lead to new ideas on the birth of the universe – and its evolution. Observing more of the universe seems to be an unsettling endeavour as far  as the mainstream consensus of cosmology is concerned.

There is more that seems to strain mainstrem parameters at the next link – see https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/we-do-not-understand-how-it-can-exist-astronomers-baffled-by-almost-invisible-dwarf-galaxy-that-upends-a-dark-matter-theory … which is all about the Nube, a new cosmic phenomenon. A super diffuse dwarf galaxy which gives off barely any visible light and defies mainstream explanation. It has been christened, the Nube. The galaxy is so dim it has avoided detection for years. Both the first and second links involved data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Hence, the interpretation may change any time soon.

Over at https://www.sciencenews.org/article/fast-radio-burst-traced-galaxy-merge …. a strong input of electromagnetic energy has been traced back to seven merging galaxies – or what is interpreted as seven merging galaxies. The finding could bolster the theory that such mysterious flare-ups, also known as fast radio  bursts, originate from  magnetised old stars known colloquially as magnetars. Fast radio burst, or spurts, are transient events. Ultra transient events as they last a fraction of a second. Yet, they generate enormous amonnts of energy. The source of this one turned out to be seven galaxies crammed into a region the size of the Milky Way. Other fast radio bursts have been traced back to an origin in lone galaxies, or globular galaxies, See also http://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.10815

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