Scientists Detect "Dark Flow:" Matter From Beyond the Visible Universe
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Just as unseen dark energy is increasing the rate of expansion of the universe, there's something else out there causing an unexpected motion in distant galaxy clusters. Scientists believe the cause is the gravitational attraction of matter that lies beyond the observable universe, and they are calling it "Dark Flow," in the vein of two other cosmological mysteries, dark matter and dark energy. "The clusters show a small but measurable velocity that is independent of the universe's expansion and does not change as distances increase," said lead researcher Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The distribution of matter in the observed universe cannot account for this motion."
"We never expected to find anything like this," he said.
Using NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe's (WMAP) three-year view of the microwave background and a catalog of clusters, the astronomers detected hundreds of galaxy clusters that appear to be carried along by a mysterious cosmic flow. The bulk cluster motions are traveling at nearly 2 million miles per hour. The clusters are heading toward a 20-degree patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.
Several astronomers teamed up to identify some 700 X-ray clusters that exhibited a subtle spectral shift. This sample includes objects up to 6 billion light-years — or nearly half of the observable universe — away.
They found this motion is constant out to at least a billion light-years. "Because the dark flow already extends so far, it likely extends across the visible universe," Kashlinsky says.
The finding flies in the face of predictions from standard cosmological models, which describe such motions as decreasing at ever greater distances.
Cosmologists view the microwave background - a flash of light emitted 380,000 years after the big bang - as the universe's ultimate reference frame. Relative to it, all large-scale motion should show no preferred direction.
Big-bang models that include a feature called inflation offer a possible explanation for the flow. Inflation is a brief hyper-expansion early in the universe's history. If inflation did occur, then the universe we can see is only a small portion of the whole cosmos.
WMAP data released in 2006 support the idea that our universe experienced inflation. Kashlinsky and his team suggest that their clusters are responding to the gravitational attraction of matter that was pushed far beyond the observable universe by inflation. "This measurement may give us a way to explore the state of the cosmos before inflation occurred," he says.
The next step is to narrow down uncertainties in the measurements. "We need a more accurate accounting of how the million-degree gas in these galaxy clusters is distributed," says Atrio-Barandela.
"We’re assembling an even larger and deeper catalog of X-ray clusters to better measure the flow," Ebeling adds. The researchers also plan to extend their analysis by using the latest WMAP results, released in March.
The result will appear in the October 20 edition of Astrophysical Journal Letters, which is available electronically this week.
Preprint of Dark Flow Paper, results and implications
Preprint of Dark Flow Paper, technical details
Source: NASA
Filed under: Cosmology
September 28th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Could this be evidence of a worm hole that was predicted by Einstein?
September 28th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
To: Erik, I believe your comment correct that light and gravity travel at or about the same speed. I'm not sure why there would be confusion where gravity is attracting something and no photons. The earth's gravity pulls on the moon and there isn't any evidence of photons released from anything as a result of this pull. I suspect the 'dark flow of galixies' from the other side of red max may be influenced by the same force(s) responsible for the motion of galixies in the obsevable universe. I further believe gravity travels with clusters of moving galaxies and why not? Galaxies in our visible universe that disappear over the red max barrier must take their gravity with. I don't think there would be any residual gravity remaing in the visible universe. I don't think there is any conflict of ideas on this subject. This 'dark flow' from the other side might be detectable in all directions and, to some degree, explain all the cosmic chaos we see.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
So either there's a bubble or bladder or wall, or there isn't. If there isn't, that explains how light energy could be escaping beyond from distant galaxies, ie perhaps 13 billion light years beyond.
To satisfy the law of conservation there should be an equal quantity entering our visible portion of the universe from beyond.
To satisfy reason, that 13 billion light-years has to be added to the 13 billion that it has taken for their light to reach us. Plus expansion within that same period. Mathematicians, do your stuff.
David
September 29th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Here's a thought.
Perhaps when we speak of a star or galaxy, we should refer to its radiant global diameter, which, of course is dependent upon it s age. If we can see it and can assess its age we should then be able to calculate its global effect in the universe.
When we gaze at it or its light is shining on us, we are absorbing some of that star.
And another thing - If our sun is only 5 or 6 billion years old, its light hasn't gone halfway out to the edge of the visible universe yet.
David
October 1st, 2008 at 12:40 am
Dark flow phenomenon causing force drawing someone truly massive property is located in the visible universe outside? How does this tractive force is conveyed?
For example, the stars radiate throughout the energy of waves with particles of nature! Particles moving mode, which is already in place and at the same time, the region can move particles emanating from the various starfish, and they continue the movement quite the same direction away from the area in which the stars is!
The visible universe outside is truly massive concentration of energy which radiate energy waves, which have the nature of quasars. the same region can become the galaxy from several different angles, so that the business continues to quite the same direction, at the same time, when the first stars emit flammable Light. As a dark flow phenomenon can be explained logically!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AewKGNIZpuE
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Hanging on by a thread of Dark Matter. Yep, that's Big Bang. A beginning seems to be a necessity in the science of cosmology. Why?
Reading many opinions on this report one gets that feeling, that we here on earth are right in the middle of a created universe, whether by God or a singularity suddenly flying apart, and that some new stuff is embarrassingly discovered just beyond what was thought to be the 'bladder'. And for the sake of accepted cosmological science, that's it. The boundary, created be a beginning and its expansion has to be there to protect this crazy BB philosophy.
I have put this question far more than once:-
[1] Light from a galaxy at the presumed edge of the universe takes 13 billion years to reach us. Stars shine globally, so where is their light going to that shines beyond the perceived boundary of the universe a mere 700 million light-years away?
[2] In an expanding Big Bang scenario, and since the light from those most distant visible galaxies has taken 13 billion years to reach us, where are those galaxies now if not 13 billion light-years further away or more? And that's probably more than 12.3 billion light-years beyond the perceived bladder.
So add these three rational probabilities together and you get 13 plus 13 plus 13 billion light-years.
That is:-
[a] Time that their light has taken to reach us plus,
[b] Expansion from where those galaxies were to where they are now, plus
[c] Light penetration distance from where they are now away beyond them. equals
Probably far more than 39 billion light-years.
We cannot have expansion and in the same breath say, 'those galaxies are still there'.
We cannot say that there is a bladder 700 million light-years beyond those farthest light visible galaxies whilst conservation insists that light from those galaxies is being bounced back into the universe - not unless someone can convincingly prove that a mirror, or something similar, exists to do just that.
But, since the perceived age of the universe is based upon the visible radius of light, and in light of this new discovery, surely it's time for Big Bang and its foundational cosmology to bow out and give eternity a chance.
David
October 11th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Take a pair dividers - describe a 100 mm diameter circle near the bottom of a sheet of paper - That is the boundary/containment of the universe. - From the centre to the boundary is 13.7 billion light-years.
About 700 million light-years in from the upper edge of your circle there is one of the youngest galaxies in the universe - put the point of your dividers on it, about 2 mm inside the boundary and describe another circle.
A galaxy shines its light globally. Since we are 13 billion light-years from it, we would assume that its light will reach within and almost equally beyond the so-called containment of the universe.
But since that galaxy is racing away by what is called expansion, it cannot be now, where it was when the light we see shone from it. So, place the point of your dividers on the upper edge of your upper circle and describe another circle. And the upper edge of your third circle will be a minimum of 39 billion light-years away from us.
The word, containment, derived from the belief that there was a beginning, expansion, and an outer limit, or edge, of the universe, has to be absolute nonsense.
Creation, is an ongoing, eternal, recycling phenomenon. Stars come and go - planets come and go - we come and go, etc. etc. Nothing is lost and nothing is gained.
David
October 12th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Matter and “dark matter"
Fact and Speculation.
=========.
1.
Fact.
The detected material mass of the matter in the Universe is so small
(the average density of all substance in the Universe is approximately
p=10^-30 g/sm^3) that it cannot “ close “ the Universe and therefore
our Universe as whole is “ open”, endless.
But what to do with the infinite Universe the physicists don't know.
The concept of infinite/ eternal means nothing
to a scientists. They do not understand how they could
draw any real, concrete conclusions from this characteristic.
A notions of "more", "less", "equally, "similar" could not
be conformed to a word infinity or eternity.
The Infinity/Eternity is something, that has no borders,
has no discontinuity; it could not be compared to anything.
Considering so, scientists came to conclusion that the
infinity/eternity defies to a physical and mathematical definition
and cannot be considered in real processes.
Therefore they have proclaimed the strict requirement
(on a level of censor of the law):
« If we want that the theory would be correct,
the infinity/eternity should be eliminated ».
Thus they direct all their mathematical abilities,
all intellectual energy to the elimination of infinity.
Therefore they invented an abstract "dark matter" and " dark energy".
They say: " 90% or more of the matter in the Universe is unseen.
And nobody knows what it is.
2.
Speculation.
Unknown “dark matter “ it is matter which makes up the difference
between observed mass of a galaxies and calculated mass……
which….will …” close “ ….the Universe, as …….
as……the astrophysicists want.
3.
The Dark Matter is another official dogma of our astronomy.
/ V. H. Vergon. /
==============..
October 20th, 2008 at 6:44 am
The 'dark flow' is proof for my darkfieldtheory. In this theory the 'dark flow' belongs in a rotational torus-universe (based on 3T time physics in stead of 1T-time in a Big Bang).
The torus-universe is much larger than the Big Bang-universe and explains why the expansion is different beacuse of the rotational effects in the torus-universe. My theory 'rings the bells' for leaving the Big Bang behind. The 'dark flow' extends the mystery around dark energy and dark matter even more. Theoretical and practical (independent) evidence is given in my website http://www.darkfieldnavigator.com, where I describe a new 'recalculation-cosmology'.
A new formula shows how dark energy and dark matter effects the elementary spin (h). These effects lead to a rotational torus-universe, wherein the 'hubble flow' (the constant expansion-speed of the Big Bang) is replaced by a not constant recalculation of spacetime. This leads to the 'dark flow' in a torus-universe.
Kind Regards,
Dan Visser (ingE, cosmologist, PhD* and artist).
I invite journlists to contact me to write about my new cosmology.
Note: http://www.darkfieldnavigator.com (juridical terms applied, all rights reserved, first contact me by email)
October 20, 2008
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
To Dan Visser,
How about dropping all the complicating mystery and just accept that light has a visible content that allows us to see it for its journey of approximately 13 billion years. At that point it has run out of red and becomes the dark matter, energy, that continues on its way for some more billions of years.
Isn't it easier to accept that we are simply in the middle of our 'light visible' part of the universe? Perhaps we ought to call the so called edge of the universe the 'boundary of cosmic visibility'. BCV for short.
Yes, I know that would be the demise of Big Bang and a 13.7 billion year old universe, but if there is no boundary we just may have to accept that the universe is infinite in size and age. There's nothing upsetting about that except that all the text books will have to burned, [Not a problem, that's been done before]. A lot of scientists will be devastated. - And the church?
Not really. if Creationists feel threatened by such a possibility, don't worry. - Creation is happening all the time. The arena is almost certainly boundless, and all the ingredients are there, so why did it have to have a beginning? Why would it ever come to an end? Why is there confusion about what is meant by beginning and what is meant by creation? And we do understand enough of the physics involved to know that a recycling creational activity exists. And if God did the creation bit, then He had to come from somewhere, - didn't he?
Genesis Continuous had it's [beginning] in 1972 and I've been [creating] it ever since. But 'Beginning' in that sense, doesn't mean that the paper, the pen, and the ink, had to also have a beginning.
Cheers
David
November 30th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Most models for cosmology are based on conjecture that is being modified to fit observations. Quantum Physicist did it with the discovery of the atom. How does this new information support the theory of inflation? Inflation supports the big bang and expansion.