Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Telegraph: Where Has All The Light In The Universe Gone?

It’s as if you’re in a big, brightly-lit room, but you look around and see only a few 40-watt light bulbs,” noted Carnegie’s Juna Kollmeier, lead author of the study. “Where is all that light coming from? It’s missing from our census.”

“Either our accounting of the light from galaxies and quasars is very far off, or there’s some other major source of ionizing photons that we’ve never recognized,” Kollmeier said.

“We are calling this missing light the photon underproduction crisis. But it’s the astronomers who are in crisis -- somehow or other, the universe is getting along just fine.” (read the whole thing)



4 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

Todd is a Woodstocker, an former neighbor.

When he lived out by me he used to throw a yearly BBQ for all the musicians in the neighborhood.

He built a big studio called Utopia in town. Don't know if he still owns it.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

After the scientists figure out where all the extra light is coming from, maybe they can finally turn their attention to figuring out how a bush can burn without being consumed by the flames.

Unknown said...

Jake Bugg

deborah said...

"For example, the mysterious dark matter, which holds galaxies together but has never been seen directly, could itself decay and ultimately be responsible for this extra light."

If so, that would mean the universe is unraveling and we have something to worry about. In probably about 15 billion years :)