Near and far.Although I was thrilled, as usual, to hear of yet another discovery that might lead us to our brethren in the universe ("Record Breaker breaker: see wave, in oceanography. : A planet from the early universe," SN: 7/12/03, p. 19), I was dismayed to learn that our scientists have been in such disagreement about the requirements for planetary existence. It made me worry about how many other "requirements" they may have all wrong. JOYCE STILLMAN, ODESSA Odessa, city, Ukraine Odessa (ōdĕs`ə, Rus. ədyĕ`sə), Ukr. Odesa, city (1989 pop. 1,115,000), capital of Odessa region, in Ukraine, a port on Odessa Bay of the Black Sea. , N.Y. The article describes the oldest planet known in the universe, about 12.5 billion years old, to be 7,200 light-years from Earth. Doesn't that contradict Hubble's law Hubble's law, in astronomy, statement that the distances between galaxies (see galaxy) or clusters of galaxies are continuously increasing and that therefore the universe is expanding. , which states that distance is correlated with age? JEFFREY FREED, TACOMA, WASH. No, old objects can be nearby or far away. The object is seen as it was 7,200 years ago, but at that time, the star and the globular cluster globular cluster: see star cluster. globular cluster Any large group of old, Population II (see Populations I and II) stars closely packed in a symmetrical, somewhat spherical form. About 150 have been identified in the Milky Way Galaxy. that it[micro] in were already quite ancient.--R. COWEN |
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