Largest Known Galaxy Just Discovered

[Al Bangor]

The largest known galaxy was just discovered, and you won’t believe how massive it is

Scientists have discovered the largest known galaxy ever. The new discovery is located around 3 billion light-years away. The galaxy, which is named Alcyoneus, is a giant radio galaxy. The galaxy is roughly 16.3 million light-years long. For reference, our own galaxy measures under 106,000...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

*goes to buy a flashy car to compensate for his small galaxy*

 

[Bada-Bing!]

 

[Bluemoon]

 

[Yulia]

@Al Bangor very interesting news! Don't pay attention to those posts before.
That's our future and what is really important (much more important than sports and politics)
Alcyoneus..I got this hint

Alcyoneus - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Al Bangor]

@Al Bangor very interesting news! Don't pay attention to those posts before.
That's our future and what is really important (much more important than sports and politics)
Alcyoneus..I got this hint

Alcyoneus - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It's OK. I didn't paid any attention to them.

 

[Al Bangor]

@Al Bangor very interesting news! Don't pay attention to those posts before.
That's our future and what is really important (much more important than sports and politics)
Alcyoneus..I got this hint

Alcyoneus - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I'm fascinated by the numbers involved: "Kornreich used a very rough estimate of 10 trillion galaxies in the universe. Multiplying that by the Milky Way's estimated 100 billion stars results in a large number indeed: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars, or a "1" with 24 zeros after it (1 septillion in the American numbering system; 1 quadrillion in the European system). Kornreich emphasized that number is likely a gross underestimation, as more detailed looks at the universe will show even more galaxies."

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Just hard to get excited about a bigger galaxy 16 million light years away unless you're a keen astronomer.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

The gent below is in my opinion head and shoulders above all other presenters of this topic in the UK, but not well known. The scripts for his programmes are just at the level to draw in a layperson on complex topics (possibly some rewinding required for the most tricky bits) and avoid the overblown, incredible sluggishness of Brian Cox's efforts. He even makes physics sound interesting in another series and I'd rather have a shot on the thumbscrews than hear about physics.

These shows were pretty mindblowing and worth hunting down for the curious, but aren't currently available on iplayer sadly. Wonderful descriptions of how dark matter and dark energy were uncovered as theories and the steps towards testing/proving those theories. The latter includes the somewhat crazy sounding suggestion that (if I remembet right) for around the first 8 milliard* years the universe can be shown to have expanded at a constant rate. Then.... it... accelerated (requiring more energy, hence dark energy)

What the hell is my tiny primate mind to make of such a thing?

BBC Four - The Beginning and End of the Universe - Episode guide

All episodes of The Beginning and End of the Universe

www.bbc.co.uk

*a thousand million (a word from up to 1974, when the UK lost the ability to count)

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Venus and Jupiter Conjunction: Planets to almost touch in night sky

The dazzlingly bright planets appear extremely close together in the dark sky this weekend.

www.bbc.co.uk