In October , NASA discovered the universe of discourse was sliding inexplicably toward , well , something monumental . They anticipate the phenomenon “ dismal flow , ” and it ’s but one deterrent example of the creepy , unexplained awesomeness that awaits humanity in blank .
Dark Flow . Or , The Universe ’s Great Cosmic Tease
Like some kind of massive cosmic toilet bowling ball , the multitude of galaxies that populate the known Universe are twirl inexplicably toward a lilliputian 20 - degree plane of deep quad . At least , that ’s what astrophysicist Alexander Kashlinsky discovered in an incredibly controversial paper published in October 2008 . Put only for we laypeople , the paper suggests that manner out in the cosmos — beyond Tatooine and ridiculous Ewoks and Caprica Six ’s curve — lay a chunk of thing so beyond our understanding that it is actually pulling the discernible macrocosm toward it at 600km / s.
But in that term “ observable universe ” lies the snag . We ca n’t ( and never will ) “ see ” what this masses of theorized matter face like . Which is too unfit , because the dark flow theory hints that this mass , or top-notch social organization , could be anything from another universe to a kingdom of impulsive fancy whose physics , force play and warped space - time are completely beyond any of us . Unicorns , aviate cars , cats and dogs living in harmony , you name it and it could be rightful , as we ’ll never , ever make it there to come up out first bridge player .
And even though this whole “ observable cosmos ” buzz kill mean one of the gravid discoveries ever will never be discover by humanity ’s naked eye , it does n’t mean scientist are deter from theorizing the Inferno out of what lies just beyond the cosmic horizon . Indeed , Kashlinsky think to persist in to search the phenomenon using data from the five - year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) labor . Launched in June 2001 , WMAP has been a “ spectacularly successful ” program , responsible for produce a new Standard Model of Cosmology , pronounce NASA . ( Ed . bill : WMAP ’s top ten discovery areon expose over at NASA – j.l . )
The WOW ! Signal . Or , Holy Crap , Alien Avon Calling !
Before Jodie Foster implored mankind to send poet to document the denizens of Vega , there was a veridical - living signal from the nirvana that has , to date , rest one of the most compelling pieces of grounds that we are not alone .
name the WOW ! signal , this 72 - second beacon was detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15 , 1977 . Because the unknown signal fit the parameters of what an hokey space signaling might sound like so exactly , the awestruck Ehman jotted down “ Wow ! ” when he first heard it . I ’d also like to think he cartoonishly fell back in his chair and spit burnt umber out all over the terminal when it happened too , but that ’s just me .
One of the biggest pieces of evidence affirm the theory that Wow ! was extraterrestrial in origin — and not some random sign from Earth that bounced off a satellite — was the 72 - second continuance . As was the case in Contact , with its 18 hours of recorded static , more can be understand in the duration of the transmission system than within the signaling itself . In fact , in a paper published on the 20th anniversary of WOW ! , Ehman exploredadditional possibility and conjecture regarding signal length :
There is still another element to think . The sign could really have been present for years ( or millennia , for that thing ) prior to its detection for the following intellect . Just before the data acquisition and analysis ( i.e. , the “ trial ” ) begin , the decline of the telescope was alter . In the years ( and years ) previous to August 15 , 1977 the radio set scope was not pointed at the declination where Wow ! was seen ; thus , we could n’t have detect that sign . I should mention that during the Ohio Sky Survey many years earlier , we did survey the same declination we did when the Wow ! signal was disclose . However , we were using a wideband receiver ( 8 MHz bandwidth ) . A narrowband sign average over a wide bandwidth would be reduced in intensity so much that it would have been bury in the noise . Thus , even if Wow ! were present then , we would n’t have seen it . ”
So , was it aliens ? If we get off this careen and super acid off into the lead , will we one twenty-four hour period find the source of this orphic signal ? Who bed , as subsequent attempts made over the retiring 20 years to locate the Wow ! signal , or another one like it , have failed . Even when more hefty system were implemented , like the Hollywood - friendly Very Large Array in New Mexico , the outcome were all the same : everlasting secrecy .
If you ’ll yourself a mo of desirous thinking , however , the estimate that this was some variety of potent last - ditch burst of radiation from a dying alien race is not implausible . As detailed byauthor and stargazer David Darling , the Wow ! signal could have been generated by an exotic civilization with access code to a transmitting sweetheart like our Arecibo radio telescope . They ’d also need a 2.2 - gigawatt transmitter — extremely herculean , but plausible for humans ( and decidedly plausible if your race is , say , face defunctness ) .
NASA ’s Mystery BOOM ! Or Something In Space Is Screaming
Contrary to what the original Alien movie poster might have head you to believe , somewhere in the existence , something is screaming — and we can “ hear ” it .
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-detects-mystery-booming-sound-in-deep-space-origi-5128146
In the dustup of Alan Kogut from the Goddard Space Center , “ The world really give us a curve . rather of the faint signaling we hope to find , here was this expand ‘ disturbance ’ six times louder than anyone had prognosticate . ”
Of course , there is no sound in blank space . What NASA’sARCADE systemreceived was really deafening cosmic tuner background signal , and the source is totally unsung at this time . Normally radio scope pick up electromagnetic chatter in the 10 MHz and 100 gigahertz , come from what are known as“radio galaxies . ”But according to our existing models and theory , the signaling should n’t exist , as there are “ not enough radio coltsfoot to calculate for the signal . ”
As detailed by Jesus when thisstory initially break earlier this year , NASA state that to make this signal , “ you ’d have to mob [ radio galaxies ] into the universe like sardine . There would n’t be any blank space left between one galaxy and the next . ” That ’s obviously not the pillowcase .
The discovery , while amazing , also carries with it a substantial negative . Remember all that cool stuff about dark period and the bound of the macrocosm from before ? Well , the BOOM complicates our efforts to find it more accurately .
Hubble Spies UFO . Or … Yeah , This One Really Was a Legitimate UFO
Stories like these confirm to me that we require to keep Hubble and similar programme become as long as humanly potential .
On February 21 , 2006 ( the paper was only published recently ) , the august infinite scope spy a UFO in an field of distance where thereshould have been nothing at all .
https://gizmodo.com/hubble-finds-unidentified-object-in-space-scientists-p-5049896
Stranger still , the target vanish almost as enigmatically as it arrived , about 100 mean solar day after the initial reflection . It got very shining over clock time , to the twenty-first order of magnitude , then faded just as tight . Kind of like an explosion … Not much else is known about the celestial phenomenon , and it has n’t reappeared since 2006 .
The one other certainty ? It was n’t detritus , so there go all your jokes .
The Sloan Great Wall : There Is Nothing Bigger
Until we figure out what that huge thing tugging on the gasp leg of the existence is , the freakishly immense Sloan Great Wall is the big structure have it off to mankind .
It is a behemoth paries of galaxy , otherwise get it on as a astronomic filament , that elongate 1.37 billion light eld from end to end . The filament was discovered only recently , on October 20 , 2003 , by the Princeton University yoke J. Richard Gott III and Mario Jurić . Its huge , unimaginable volume rest an every bit impossible one billion light years from Earth .
It ’s kind of hard to wrap your mind around such space , so we ’ll take things down an exponential notch or two and compare the Great Sloan Wall to something we might eventually ( fingerbreadth crossed ) map out in a few thousand years : The Milky Way .
Our coltsfoot is really count large in the strategy of things . Various estimates say it ’s about 100,000 light - years from end - to - end , and about 1,000 low-cal - age deep in the center ( where there lie a monolithic black hole ) . So , 1.37 billion versus 100,000 . I ’d say it ’s like David and Goliath , but that ’d be woefully inaccurate . This Goliath would be incapable of even knowing about our undistinguished niggling existence . Our “ great ” galaxy is more like a cell in the human body in this case — dutifully performing its mundane , insignificant work while the horde incite obliviously on through infinity .
To Boldly Go Where No One Has endure Before . Or , My Closing .
Now , admittedly , these interstellar objects and phenomena are a bit beyond both our reach and our comprehension , and I highly doubt we ’ll ever encounter any of them at first hand on our wild journeyOff This Rockanytime soon . But you ’ll never get wind me say “ never ” when it comes to space travel , even if you just did . This listing , if anything , is a heads - up for us all as we ( or our automaton ) journeying into deep space .
view your ass out in the ether , people , because it ’s a frakking freak show up there .
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