Vast bubble of galaxies discovered, given Hawaiian name | University of Hawaiʻi System News
Figure 13. Interactive 3D visualization of the cosmography of Ho'oleilana. All objects in the north galactic hemisphere of the Cosmicflows-4 collection of galaxy groups are seen as points in gray while those lying within the shell of Ho'oleilana, of radius 11,492 km s−1 and width ±2w where w = 837 km s−1, are highlighted in red. Major components in proximity to the shell are highlighted and identified by name. The Boötes supercluster lies near the center of Ho'oleilana. Our home location is at the origin of the red, green, and blue axes. These axes have lengths 10,000 km s−1 and are directed toward positive SGX, SGY, and SGZ, respectively. An interactive version of this figure is available on Sketchfab at https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hooleilana-a871418f1a3b4afc89f5cda9f3a70c53.
The thing about science is that it is supported by evidence and one of the best pieces of evidence is when something predicted by a theory turns out to be true.
And one of the things predicted by the Big Bang is massive objects produced by 3D ripples found in the material of the early universe, known as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO).
What are Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and what is their relevance to cosmology?The problem is, because the Universe has been expanding since they were produced, they are now a very long way away, or rather a very long time ago (which in cosmology amounts to the same thing, because the further we look into space the further back in time we are seeing things.
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) are a fundamental phenomenon in the early universe that has significant relevance to cosmology. They are a pattern of fluctuations in the distribution of matter, particularly baryonic matter (protons and neutrons), in the universe. BAOs are a consequence of the Big Bang and the subsequent evolution of the universe. Here's a more detailed explanation of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and their relevance to cosmology:In summary, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations provide a unique and robust way to study the large-scale structure of the universe and probe its expansion history, shedding light on the fundamental cosmological questions about the nature of dark energy and the evolution of the cosmos.
- Formation in the Early Universe: In the very early universe, before galaxies and galaxy clusters had formed, the distribution of matter was not entirely uniform. There were slight density fluctuations or perturbations in the distribution of matter. These fluctuations were imprinted in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), which is the afterglow of the Big Bang.
- Sound Waves in the Primordial Plasma: In the first few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, the universe was a hot and dense plasma of protons, electrons, and photons. These density fluctuations in matter created pressure waves or sound waves in this plasma. However, unlike sound waves in the air, these waves were traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
- Freeze-Out: When the universe expanded and cooled sufficiently, at around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, electrons combined with protons to form neutral hydrogen atoms. This process is known as recombination. At this point, the photons decoupled from the matter, creating the CMB, and the sound waves effectively "froze out."
- Imprinted Patterns: The frozen-in density fluctuations in the early universe left an imprint on the distribution of matter that we see today. These imprints created regions of slightly higher and lower matter density on cosmic scales, forming a characteristic pattern with a preferred scale.
- Observational Significance: The significance of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in cosmology lies in their scale. The characteristic scale of these oscillations, known as the BAO scale, is about 500 million light-years. This scale serves as a standard ruler for measuring cosmic distances.
- Relevance to Cosmological Probes: BAOs are a crucial cosmological probe because they can be observed in large-scale galaxy surveys. By measuring the apparent size of the BAO scale in the distribution of galaxies and comparing it to the expected size based on the CMB and other cosmological parameters, astronomers can constrain the expansion history of the universe. This helps in determining the rate of cosmic expansion and the nature of dark energy, a mysterious component of the universe responsible for its accelerated expansion.
And now scientists have discovered one of these massive objects 820 million lightyears away. That's 4.8 sextillion miles, not allowing for leap years!
And, of course, that means the light coming from it started out 820 million years ago; in other words the scientists are seeing it as it was (and where it was) 820 million years ago.
If creationists’ claims about the age of the Universe were true, the object could not be more than 8,000 lightyears away (even if the rate of recession were equal to the velocity of light), i.e., it would be about 1,000 times closer. If this were true for every other distant body, the night sky would be so crowded it would make the sky glow brightly 24 hours a day.
I'll leave creationists to do the mental gymnastics needed to cope with the cognitive dissonance caused by that inconvenient real-world fact.
A University of Hawai'i news release explains the discovery which is published in The Astrophysical Journal:
A University of Hawaiʻi-led discovery of an immense bubble 820 million light years from Earth is believed to be a fossil-like remnant of the birth of the universe. Astronomer Brent Tully from the UH Institute for Astronomy and his team unexpectedly found the bubble within a web of galaxies. The entity has been given the name Hoʻoleilana, a term drawn from the Kumulipo, a Hawaiian creation chant evoking the origin of structure.The team have published their findings, open access in The Astrophysical Journal:
The new findings published in The Astrophysical Journal, mention these massive structures are predicted by the Big Bang theory, as the result of 3D ripples found in the material of the early universe, known as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO).
Astronomers located the bubble using data from Cosmicflows-4, which is to date, the largest compilation of precise distances to galaxies. Tully co-published the exceptional catalog in fall 2022. His team of researchers believe this may be the first time astronomers identified an individual structure associated with a BAO. The discovery could help bolster scientists’ knowledge of the effects of galaxy evolution.We were not looking for it. It is so huge that it spills to the edges of the sector of the sky that we were analyzing. As an enhancement in the density of galaxies it is a much stronger feature than expected. The very large diameter of one billion light years is beyond theoretical expectations. If its formation and evolution are in accordance with theory, this BAO is closer than anticipated, implying a high value for the expansion rate of the universe.
Dr R Brent Tuly, lead author
Emeritus Astronomer
Institute for Astronomy
University of Hawai'i.
UH News story: UH astronomers map distances to 56,000 galaxies, largest-ever catalog, September 26, 2022Enormous bubbles of matter
In the well-established Big Bang theory, during the first 400,000 years, the universe is a cauldron of hot plasma similar to the interior of the Sun. Within a plasma, electrons were separated from the atomic nuclei. During this period, regions with slightly higher density began to collapse under gravity, even as the intense bath of radiation attempted to push matter apart. This struggle between gravity and radiation made the plasma oscillate or ripple and spread outward.
The largest ripples in the early universe depended on the distance a sound wave could travel. Set by the speed of sound in the plasma, this distance was almost 500 million light years, and was fixed once the universe cooled and stopped being a plasma, leaving vast three-dimensional ripples. Throughout the eons, galaxies formed at the density peaks, in enormous bubble-like structures. Patterns in the distribution of galaxies, properly discerned, could reveal the properties of these ancient messengers.
This same team of researchers also identified the Laniākea Supercluster in 2014. That structure, which includes the Milky Way, is small in comparison. Stretching at a diameter of about 500 million light years, Laniākea extends to the near edge of this much larger bubble.I am the cartographer of the group, and mapping Hoʻoleilana in three dimensions helps us understand its content and relationship with its surroundings. It was an amazing process to construct this map and see how the giant shell structure of Hoʻoleilana is composed of elements that were identified in the past as being themselves some of the largest structures of the universe.
Dr Daniel Pomarede, co-author
Institut de Recherche sur les Lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
CEA Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
From deep darkness
Hoʻoleilana which means “sent murmurs of awakening” emerged from discussions between Tully and UH Hilo Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani Hawaiian language Professor Larry Kimura and ʻImiloa Astronomy Center Executive Director Kaʻiu Kimura. The object’s name comes from the Kumulipo chant, Hoʻolei ka lana a ka Po uliuli, from deep darkness came murmurs of awakening. The traditional naming of select astronomical discoveries in Hawaiʻi stems from ʻImiloa program, A Hua He Inoa, created to demonstrate how Hawaiian language or ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi is merging with scientific knowledge.
Related UH News story: Hawaiian students learn, name astronomical discoveries through ʻImiloa program, January 8, 2019Uncovering a single BAO
Tully’s team discovered that Hoʻoleilana had been noted in a 2016 research paper as the most prominent of several shell-like structures seen in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. However, the earlier work did not reveal the full extent of the structure, and that team did not conclude they had found a BAO.
Using the Cosmicflows-4 catalog, the researchers were able to see a full spherical shell of galaxies, identify its center, and show that there is a statistical enhancement in the density of galaxies in all directions from that center. Hoʻoleilana encompasses many well-known structures previously found by astronomers, such as the Harvard/Smithsonian Great Wall containing the Coma Cluster, the Hercules Cluster and the Sloan Great Wall. The Boötes Supercluster resides at its center. The historic Boötes Void, a massive empty spherical region, lies inside Hoʻoleilana.
Abstract
Theory of the physics of the early hot universe leads to a prediction of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) that has received confirmation from the pairwise separations of galaxies in samples of hundreds of thousands of objects. Evidence is presented here for the discovery of a remarkably strong individual contribution to the BAO signal at z = 0.068, an entity that is given the name Ho’oleilana. The radius of the 3D structure is Mpc. At its core is the Boötes supercluster. The Sloan Great Wall, Center for Astrophysics Great Wall, and Hercules complex all lie within the BAO shell. The interpretation of Ho’oleilana as a BAO structure with our preferred analysis implies a value of the Hubble constant of 76.9 +8.2-4.8Km s-1 Mpc-1Figure 12. Video visualization of the cosmography of Ho'oleilana. All objects in the north galactic hemisphere of the Cosmicflows-4 collection of galaxy groups are seen as points in gray while those lying within the shell of Ho'oleilana, of radius 11,492 km s−1 and width ±2w where w = 837 km s-1, are highlighted in red. Major components in proximity to the shell are highlighted and identified by name. The Boötes supercluster lies near the center of Ho'oleilana and the Boötes void lies interior to the shell structure. Our home location is at the origin of the red, green, and blue axes. These axes have lengths 10,000 km s-1 and are directed toward positive SGX, SGY, and SGZ, respectively. Higher-resolution versions of the animations are available at https://vimeo.com/814958164/37504df76e.
Tully, R. Brent; Howlett, Cullan; Pomarède, Daniel Ho’oleilana: An Individual Baryon Acoustic Oscillation?
The Astrophysical Journal 954(2) 169; DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aceaf3
Copyright: © 2023 The authors.
Published by the American Astronomical Society. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.
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