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A universe in motion

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Eiregirl



Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 10230
Location: Chasing a pink bunny
A universe in motion

Since first looking up into the night sky humanity has gazed in wonder at the cosmos. Today we look into the vastness of space with our eyes and any number of different types of telescopes and we still look out there in awe and wonder. We look at the moon, the stars, other planets and anything we can see. We view nebulas, black holes, gamma ray bursts and other galaxies. We look at these things in awe and wonder.

If you think about it as you look into the night sky it appears the same every night or perhaps there is a very slight almost unnoticeable difference. While that is true it is also true that everything you see is in motion. The moon moves around earth and the earth moves around the sun. The sun slowly moves around the galaxy in its near quarter billion year path around the galaxy.

Our galaxy is one of over one hundred billion galaxies, which are known to exist in the universe. These galaxies form what are called clusters or super clusters, which can contain thousands of galaxies. This galaxy, the Milky Way, along with Andromeda are among many galaxies that form our Local Group of galaxies. Our Local Group is but one of many that form the Virgo cluster.

Andromeda and the Milky Way are speeding toward each other at about 200,000 MPH or about 300,000 KPH while the Local Group of galaxies are moving toward the center of the Virgo cluster at around 1.6 million KPH. The Virgo cluster itself is speeding in the direction of the Hydra constellation at an enormous rate of speed…this speed continues to build as we move toward some unknown Great Attractor up to a speed that some claim to be over 20,000,000 KPH.

There is no doubt our universe is in motion…but why is it in motion.

We stand here on earth because we are attracted to it. The sun keeps the solar together because of its attraction. There is something at the core of the Milky Way (not the candy bar) that keeps our galaxy bound together and many suspect it is a black hole or a densely pack group of stars and some suspect other things but who really knows? Some astronomers considers our Local Group of galaxies to be a part of the Virgo Super cluster of galaxies and it is known that we are being drawn toward its center by something. Some astronomers believe the Virgo Super Cluster is being drawn toward an enormous Super Cluster of Galaxies. Some galaxies may far enough away from the super cluster and they may be able to attain an escape velocity and break the attraction of the super cluster but our galaxy will not. The Virgo cluster is also being pulled along toward something out there. What is causing all of this motion…it is what scientists consider to be the weakest force…gravity.

We (us humans for those who wonder what I mean by we) have gazed into the universe for millennia with just our eyes. We have looked into the heavens with telescopes. We have studied the bright dots in the night sky and revealed a vast hierarchy of structure and motion.

The Following is from Astronomy.com
“It has also been known for two decades that our Milky Way galaxy is traveling through intergalactic space at high speed. The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is radiation that comes to us in all directions from the time when the universe was a hot plasma, 300,000 years after the Big Bang. One part in a hundred systematic variations in frequency of the peak of the CMB radiation is taken to be a Doppler shift caused by our motion with respect to the ensemble of all other matter. Some of the components of our motion have been known for a long time. Earth orbits the Sun once a year and the Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy every 250 million years. We also have known that our galaxy is being pulled toward neighboring concentrations of matter, particularly our nearest giant neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, at a distance of 2-million light-years and the nearest rich cluster of thousands of galaxies, the Virgo Cluster, at 55 million light-years. It has also become clear that there are very long-range forces pulling on us. We have a motion in a direction toward two huge concentrations of galaxies that happen by chance to line up, one behind the other, at distances of 200 and 600 million light-years. The relative importance of these two attractors has remained a disputed detail among astronomers.

Yet until now, part of our motion inferred from the variation in the CMB remained unexplained. It is in a direction aligned with the flattened disk of our galaxy and there was the possibility that something important was being hidden by the veil of obscuring dust clouds in the plane of the Milky Way. However, radiation at X-ray, infrared, and radio wavelengths are not blocked. Years of observing by many astronomers have failed to reveal anything important.

Now, another kind of observation has resolved the mystery. Astronomers have been measuring the distances to galaxies with precision techniques. With accurate distances it is possible to distinguish between the motions of galaxies due to the general expansion of the universe and the local deviant motions caused by the way matter is clumped, with its consequent gravitational effects. It is found that galaxies are flowing in streams, with coherent flows caused by large attractors far away and eddies caused by modest attractors nearby. The influences on our motion discussed above have been confirmed. In addition, features of the local streaming pattern reveal the source of the additional component.

The critical new information comes from observations of relatively nearby galaxies with Hubble Space Telescope. Accurate distances to galaxies are provided by measuring the luminosities of the brightest old stars that lie on what is known as the Red Giant Branch. These stars have well-established properties. The accurate distances give a detailed map of the flow pattern of nearby galaxies and reveal several remarkable things. First, the direction of our motion with respect to the nearest several thousand galaxies is well defined. Second, all the galaxies within 15 million light-years, within our Local Sheet, are moving together. Third, this motion is NOT shared by galaxies just beyond our Local Sheet and, in fact, we are moving on a collision course toward the nearest adjacent filament, the Leo Spur (it will be at least 10 billion years before the Local Sheet and the Leo Spur pancake together).

These patterns reveal the cause: the Local Void. Whereas concentrations of matter pull, a void pushes. If an object is surrounded uniformly by matter in all directions, except for one sector in which there is nothing, then the absence of a pull is a push away from that sector. The effect can be astonishingly large. Our velocity away from the Local Void is 600,000 miles-per-hour.

To generate such a large velocity, the void must be very large and very empty. The current standard model of the universe with dark matter and dark energy does allow for voids that are as large as we infer for the Local Void, but it is impressive that we should live next to such a large feature. More importantly for our theoretical understanding, we conclude that the void is really empty. Only a small fraction of the matter of the universe is in a visible form, so it is not a given that an apparently empty region is truly empty. However, the large push we are getting from the Local Void is convincing evidence that it really is empty.”
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All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.

Post Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:47 am 
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Vampyre_Zero



Joined: 29 Mar 2008
Posts: 12
Location: A man in Texas
I enjoyed reading your Essay

I enjoyed reading your Essay Eiregirl. I haven't read something as insightful about The Universe in a while. Thank you very much. I'll have to post my thoughts on why Gravity exists on Earth. I'm not talking about the obvious reason. Their is a greater reason that most do not think of.

Post Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:41 pm 
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Eiregirl



Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 10230
Location: Chasing a pink bunny
Re: I enjoyed reading your Essay

quote:
Originally posted by Vampyre_Zero:
I enjoyed reading your Essay Eiregirl. I haven't read something as insightful about The Universe in a while. Thank you very much. I'll have to post my thoughts on why Gravity exists on Earth. I'm not talking about the obvious reason. Their is a greater reason that most do not think of.


Vamp,

Thank you very much. I am looking forward to reading your thoughts Smile

Hugs,
Eiregirl Arrow
_________________
All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.

Post Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:54 pm 
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