Possible Anisotropy of the Universe

[Bluenose]

I read about this elsewhere.  I think together with the doubt that has been expressed about standard candles that in turn brings the whole concept of dark energy into doubt, we are in the midst of a new revolution of our understanding of the cosmos. Add to that the issues with the standard model revealed by the proton radius problem I think we are seeing a complete revolution of physics.  Exciting time to be a science geek!

Don't recall anything about a question for the standard candle, but the thing about physics, and any science in general, is that there is always more to learn. We only have approximations for whatever we observe. I suspect that by the time we figure it all out, we'll be dead, because that will be the end of the universe.

Article about standard candles not being so standard after all

[Dark Lightning]

I read about this elsewhere.  I think together with the doubt that has been expressed about standard candles that in turn brings the whole concept of dark energy into doubt, we are in the midst of a new revolution of our understanding of the cosmos. Add to that the issues with the standard model revealed by the proton radius problem I think we are seeing a complete revolution of physics.  Exciting time to be a science geek!

Don't recall anything about a question for the standard candle, but the thing about physics, and any science in general, is that there is always more to learn. We only have approximations for whatever we observe. I suspect that by the time we figure it all out, we'll be dead, because that will be the end of the universe.

Article about standard candles not being so standard after all

Oh. I was thinking of a "candle" candle, not a "star sized" candle. The variability of stars is an issue. At my alma mater, the solar observatory staff try to calibrate their equipment using the sun itself. It's a problem, of course, due to the sun's variability even in the short term. The electronics are not linear enough to be calibrated at a different input power level, though. Cosmologists make half their own trouble, with assumptions like the Cepheids being "standard" in some way. 

[Bluenose]

I read about this elsewhere.  I think together with the doubt that has been expressed about standard candles that in turn brings the whole concept of dark energy into doubt, we are in the midst of a new revolution of our understanding of the cosmos. Add to that the issues with the standard model revealed by the proton radius problem I think we are seeing a complete revolution of physics.  Exciting time to be a science geek!

Don't recall anything about a question for the standard candle, but the thing about physics, and any science in general, is that there is always more to learn. We only have approximations for whatever we observe. I suspect that by the time we figure it all out, we'll be dead, because that will be the end of the universe.

Article about standard candles not being so standard after all

Oh. I was thinking of a "candle" candle, not a "star sized" candle. The variability of stars is an issue. At my alma mater, the solar observatory staff try to calibrate their equipment using the sun itself. It's a problem, of course, due to the sun's variability even in the short term. The electronics are not linear enough to be calibrated at a different input power level, though. Cosmologists make half their own trouble, with assumptions like the Cepheids being "standard" in some way. 

LOL about the candles thing...

It will prove to be a big embarrassment for cosmologists, because the Nobel Prize was awarded for the so called discovery of an accelerating expanding universe.  That is where the idea of dark energy was spawned to try to explain the acceleration.  But if the cepheid variables are not as consistent as had previously been thought then there may well be no acceleration and hence no dark energy.  Oh how embarrassment.

[Dark Lightning]

Variables won't, constants aren't- Osborn's Law.

It's still a guessing game with cosmology. Maybe I should stick around 'til the end of the universe to see who's right. 

[Bluenose]

Variables won't, constants aren't- Osborn's Law.

It's still a guessing game with cosmology. Maybe I should stick around 'til the end of the universe to see who's right. 

[Recusant]

Thought there were previous posts about these structures but the search function failed to find them. No matter--

"A Giant Structure in Space Challenges Our Understanding of The Universe" | Science Alert

A colossal structure in the distant Universe is defying our understanding of how the Universe evolved.

In light that has traveled for 6.9 billion years to reach us, astronomers have found a giant, almost perfect ring of galaxies, some 1.3 billion light-years in diameter. It doesn't match any known structure or formation mechanism.

The Big Ring, as the structure has been named, could mean that we need to amend the standard model of cosmology.

The discovery, led by astronomer Alexia Lopez of the University of Central Lancashire, was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January, and has been published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

The Big Ring (blue) and Giant Arc (red).
Image Credit: University of Central Lancashire

It's the second giant structure discovered by Lopez and her colleagues. The first, called the Giant Arc, is actually in the same part of the sky, at the same distance away. When the arc's discovery was announced in 2021, it puzzled astronomers. The Big Ring only deepens the mystery.

"Neither of these two ultra-large structures is easy to explain in our current understanding of the universe," Lopez said in January.

[Continues . . .]

The paper is open access:

"A Big Ring on the sky" | Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

Abstract:

We present the discovery of `A Big Ring on the Sky' (BR), the second ultra-large large-scale structure (uLSS) found in Mg II-absorber catalogues, following the previously reported Giant Arc (GA). In cosmological terms the BR is close to the GA — at the same redshift z ∼ 0.8 and with a separation on the sky of only ∼ 12°.

Two extraordinary uLSSs in such close configuration raises the possibility that together they form an even more extraordinary cosmological system. The BR is a striking circular, annulus-like, structure of diameter ∼ 400 Mpc (proper size, present epoch).

The method of discovery is as described in the GA paper, but here using the new Mg II-absorber catalogues restricted to DR16Q quasars. Using the Convex Hull of Member Spheres (CHMS) algorithm, we estimate that the annulus and inner absorbers of the BR have departures from random expectations, at the density of the control field, of up to 5.2σ.

We present the discovery of the BR, assess its significance using the CHMS, Minimal Spanning Tree (MST), FilFinder and Cuzick & Edwards (CE) methods, discuss it in the context of the GA+BR system, and suggest some implications for the origins of uLSS and for our understanding of cosmology. For example, it may be that unusual geometric patterns, such as these uLSSs, have an origin in cosmic strings.