Giant Space Blob Glows from Within: Primordial Cloud of Hydrogen Is Centrally Powered

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2011) — Observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have shed light on the power source of a rare vast cloud of glowing gas in the early Universe. The observations show for the first time that this giant "Lyman-alpha blob" -- one of the largest single objects known -- must be powered by galaxies embedded within it.

The results appear in the 18 August issue of the journal Nature.

A team of astronomers has used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study an unusual object called a Lyman-alpha blob <1>. These huge and very luminous rare structures are normally seen in regions of the early Universe where matter is concentrated. The team found that the light coming from one of these blobs is polarised <2>. In everyday life, for example, polarised light is used to create 3D effects in cinemas <3>. This is the first time that polarisation has ever been found in a Lyman-alpha blob, and this observation helps to unlock the mystery of how the blobs shine.

"We have shown for the first time that the glow of this enigmatic object is scattered light from brilliant galaxies hidden within, rather than the gas throughout the cloud itself shining." explains Matthew Hayes (University of Toulouse, France), lead author of the paper.

Lyman-alpha blobs are some of the biggest objects in the Universe: gigantic clouds of hydrogen gas that can reach diameters of a few hundred thousand light-years (a few times larger than the size of the Milky Way), and which are as powerful as the brightest galaxies. They are typically found at large distances, so we see them as they were when the Universe was only a few billion years old. They are therefore important in our understanding of how galaxies formed and evolved when the Universe was younger. But the power source for their extreme luminosity, and the precise nature of the blobs, has remained unclear.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110817130957.htm

[The Doctor.]

1. Those are wicked.

They produce some really messed up gravitational vectors at the same time as the anti-gravitational compression of space tosses out what radiate as super-massive cosmic strings at many millions of light-years out.

The counter-gravitation sets up something like linear Lagrange points all over the place, especially near the perimeter of the cloud.

If you're using regular spacial FTL, stay the hell away from it.


Still, it's not as cool as the singularity clusters. Have we discovered those yet?

[stevedeshazer]

2. Considering Lyman-alpha blobs means considering the gravitational field of one Chris Christie.

I know I will be knocked by the circumferentially challenged community, but this fellow is a walking black hole.

Chris Christie is in fact a wormhole; a connection to an alternate universe.

People like him can be seen from space.

Does this guy aspire to William Howard Taft to be the next guy to get stuck in the bathtub and die young?

Gravity, baby. Gravity.

[TheMadMonk]

3. No just an a-hole. /nt