The universe is stranger than you could have thought

[Bill Verburg]

Three different elements of the flow are presented: mapping of the velocity field is shown by means of streamlines (seeded randomly in the slice); red and grey surfaces present the knots and filaments of the V-web, respectively; and equi-gravitational potential (ϕ) surfaces are shown in green and yellow. The potential surfaces enclose the dipole repeller (in yellow) and the Shapley attractor (in green) that dominate the flow. The yellow arrow originates at our position and indicates the direction of the CMB dipole (galactic longitude l = 276°, galactic latitude b = 30°). The distance scale is given in units of km s−1.

[wdfifteen]

This is the first rational explanation of iTunes I've ever heard. You should get a Nobel!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

This is the rational explanation of iTunes I've ever heard. You should get a Nobel!

I agree!

[Chocaholic]

I thought it was the tiny bones in your inner ear.

[Geneman]

Bill ...must be the proposed locations and gravitational effects of either black holes or dark matter/energy in our " Local Group " of galaxies... however the sigma units are puzzling'' JMHO...

or the thought processes of the race stewards who scored the win for WTR at Daytona yesterday ....

[john walker's workshop]

A cosmic fetus.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by Geneman

Bill ...must be the proposed locations and gravitational effects of either black holes or dark matter/energy in our " Local Group " of galaxies... however the sigma units are puzzling'' JMHO...

or the thought processes of the race stewards who scored the win for WTR at Daytona yesterday ....

There is a push from the dipole repeller and a pull from the attractor, Not Gravity! That's what's strange

Also not associated w/ general cosmic expansion

It acts like a bar magnet but it's not magnetic either.

[M.D. Holloway]

proves the universe is female...we shall never understand it

[masraum]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

This is the first rational explanation of iTunes I've ever heard. You should get a Nobel!

I don't have a problem with iTunes, but that's hilarious. Well done!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

proves the universe is female...we shall never understand it

Men will understand the universe someday, but never women's brains.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Geneman

Bill ...must be the proposed locations and gravitational effects of either black holes or dark matter/energy in our " Local Group " of galaxies... however the sigma units are puzzling'' JMHO....

That image is far larger than the Local Group. The "distance" legend is the expansion velocity, which can be translated to a true distance using the Hubble Constant.

[sammyg2]

Are we living in a giant hologram?

"Holography is a huge leap forward in the way we think about the structure and creation of the universe," researcher Kostas Skenderis said.
By Brooks Hays | Jan. 30, 2017 at 10:21 AM

Jan. 30 (UPI) -- A new study suggests the universe is a hologram.

Cosmologists have long struggled to develop a unified model of the universe. Problems arise when trying to forge an agreement between models used to describe the cosmos at different scales -- general relativity and quantum theory.

In a new paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers from Canada, England and the United States argue a holographic explanation of the universe can account for irregularities in the cosmic microwave background, the echo of thermal energy leftover from the Big Bang.

The theory, developed in the 1990s, posits our three-dimensional reality originates in two-dimensional form at the edge of the universe.

"Imagine that everything you see, feel and hear in three dimensions -- and your perception of time -- in fact emanates from a flat two-dimensional field," Kostas Skenderis, a professor of mathematical sciences at the University of Southampton, explained in a news release. "The idea is similar to that of ordinary holograms where a three-dimensional image is encoded in a two-dimensional surface, such as in the hologram on a credit card. However, this time, the entire universe is encoded!"

In recent years, powerful new telescopes have allowed researchers to observe the cosmic microwave background in greater detail. In their newly published analysis, researchers argue quantum field theories can explain the peculiarities and anomalies measured in the "afterglow" of the Big Bang.

"Holography is a huge leap forward in the way we think about the structure and creation of the universe," Skenderis said. "Einstein's theory of general relativity explains almost everything large scale in the universe very well, but starts to unravel when examining its origins and mechanisms at quantum level."

Researchers suggest their latest analysis supports the idea that a holographic explanation of the universe can eventually reconcile Einstein's theory of gravity and quantum theory.

"I hope our research takes us another step towards this," Skenderis concluded.

New research suggests the universe is a hologram - UPI.com

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

There is a push from the dipole repeller and a pull from the attractor, Not Gravity! That's what's strange

Also not associated w/ general cosmic expansion

It acts like a bar magnet but it's not magnetic either.

It is gravity. The Shapley Attractor is a well know, well modeled supercluster of galaxies, which creates a large gravitational well. Large enough to influence a significant fraction of the Universe...

This new "dipole repeller" is a lack of mass, possibly caused by the the initial quantum fluctuations that caused the overabundance of mass at the attractor? The quantum collapse of the Higgs field during the Big Bang could cause large high and low energy points as well as the well modeled filaments.

[Pazuzu]

To give you an idea of distance, the legend shows 15,000 kms^1? That's about 650 million lightyears. Hubble's Constant is about 75 kms^1/Mpc, so divide 15,000 by 75 to get 200 Mparcecs. A Mparsec is 3.26 million lightyears, so 200 Mparsec=650 million lightyears


The whole image is about 2.6 billion lightyears across. The Observable Universe is considered to be closer to 100 billion lightyears across, so you get a sense of scale compared to the "big picture".

[nota]

link to the nature article the chart is from

The dipole repeller : Nature Astronomy

[Geneman]

mike thanks very much superb description.... btw the hubble constant was just refined to about 71.something +/- 3.2 ish in a spate of five papers to be published soon. the groups used lensing of large quasars i believe where the bent light could be resolved into 4 or 5 spots per quasar ( if i am reading this correctly) which makes for a very highly refined distance measurement.... i have lately become fascinated with cosmology ... reading penrose, eddington etc... unfortunately, i still cannot get my brain to wrap around the mathematics of singularities and event horizons... though , when i am "horizoned" by another car on track.... I KNOW IT!! FRANK

[Geneman]

HERE IT IS.... ACTUALLY its 71.9+/- 2.7 KMS/sec/mparsec accurate to 3.8 percent. thats pretty impressive.... called the HOLICOW experiment... really !

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-cosmic-lenses-universe-expansion.html

[jamesnmlaw]

Is this going to be on the test?

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

This is the first rational explanation of iTunes I've ever heard. You should get a Nobel!

Hah!

[rusnak]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

This is the first rational explanation of iTunes I've ever heard. You should get a Nobel!

Oh great. We have a scientific breakthrough to understand iTunes, but you still need a research team from NASA to use it.