The real meaning of 50 billion galaxies.By now, most people have read the headlines or seen the television reports. "Suddenly, Universe Gains 40 Billion More Galaxies," blared the Jan. 16 New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times. The newspaper touted the number in five more articles over the next 7 days. These and several other media accounts said astronomers Famous astronomers and astrophysicists include: Directory: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
Scientists, however, are nonplussed non·plus tr.v. non·plused also non·plussed, non·plus·ing also non·plus·sing, non·plus·es also non·plus·ses To put at a loss as to what to think, say, or do; bewilder. n. by all the fuss. The stories refer to the faintest detailed image ever taken of the heavens, recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. last month (SN: 1/20/96, p. 36). Astronomers estimate that this slice of the heavens contains at least 150,000 galaxies. If the slice is representative of the rest of the universe-and researchers believe it is-then the cosmos could indeed contain 40 billion to 50 billion galaxies, Hubble researchers say. So far, so good. But that impressive number is not a surprise, asserts the Hubble team that released the image 2 weeks ago. Although Hubble scientists hadn't previously published a formal count, Robert E. Williams and Harry Ferguson Henry George (Harry) Ferguson (November 4, 1884 - October 25, 1960) developed the modern agricultural tractor. He was also an early Irish aviator. He was born at Growell, near Dromore, County Down, Ireland (in what is now Northern Ireland), and was the son of an Irish farmer. of the Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST; in orbit since 1990) and for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST; scheduled to be launched in 2013). in Baltimore say that several shorter-exposure images taken with the telescope since its 1993 repair all indicate that the cosmos contains at least 50 billion galaxies. "Anyone who has gone to meetings over the last year would not be surprised [by that number]," says Ferguson. He adds that some confusion in the press may have come about because ground-based images, which have a lower resolution, indicate that the universe contains only 10 billion galaxies. |
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