Astronomers Find Anomaly That Defies Understanding of the Universe
A new discovery in space may make us rethink everything we know about the universe.
Scientists at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, have discovered a giant arc—an extremely large crescent structure of galaxies in distant space. Ph.D. candidate Alexia Lopez, who made the discovery, said, “It’s so big that it’s hard to explain with our current theories.”
The Cosmological Principle states that the universe is homogenous and isotropic, meaning the universe looks the same in all orientations. So how does the giant arc challenge our way of thinking about the universe?
Astronomer and Gaia News contributor Marc D’Antonio said, “this giant arc is really interesting because we’ve seen large-scale structures before in the universe, but nothing of this size. The proportion of this is something that’s actually outside our understanding of current cosmology.”
“What’s interesting about that is, this particular arc, it’s about 9.2 billion light-years away from us, and it’s about 3.4 billion light-years in size. Now keep in mind, that’s a good fraction of the size of the known universe, which is somewhere in the order of 91 or 92 billion light-years in diameter.”
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Decades After Landing on Mars, We May Find Proof of Past Life
After 25 years of rovers landing on Mars, many are looking forward to the next chapter of Mars exploration, which may include excavating deep into the red planet. In July 1997, NASA’s Pathfinder landed on Mars and began its mission to demonstrate how a robotic rover would land on the red planet.
Using an innovative design, the rover landed on Mars with a parachute and a series of giant airbags to cushion its blow. The Carl Sagan memorial station and the Sojourner Rover outlived their projected lifespan, and in the years following sent magnificent images back to Earth.
The lander returned more than 16,500 images and the rover sent back 550 more, in addition to chemical analyses of rocks, soil, and data on wind and weather. The final transmission from the Mars Pathfinder was on September 27, 1997, but the data it provided helped scientists to conclude Mars was once wet and warm, and rounded rocks on the surface indicate they may have been worn down by running water, and if there was water, there could have been life.
Flash forward to today, NASA’s Perseverance Rover, on the red planet since February of 2021, is tasked with finding past or present life and seeing if humans could one day explore or colonize Mars.
