What? Something is tugging at our Universe? Yes. Something is. What that something is a baffling mystery. But something is lurking outside our universe.
We all know that our universe is expanding at incredible speeds. The universe is flying apart. It will take billions of years for the universe to get to the point when matter is so scattered that everything will die, even black holes. So not to worry.
But now, not only is the universe expanding, but distant galaxy clusters are all moving in one direction, and that’s a mystery we want to solve. Our galaxy is sliding steadily toward a specific direction. This motion of these galaxies have been coined “dark flow” as was discovered in 2008. Alexander Kashlinsky and his team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has been studying “dark flow” since 2008 trying to find the answer to this mystery. The new study used 1,400 galaxy clusters to confirm earlier reports of 700 clusters that were moving in one direction. Using more galaxy clusters confirms that dark flow is real. Other independent research also found the same motion in distant clusters.
The direction of these galaxies is towards the constellations Centaurus and Hydra – at a rate of 2.2 million miles per hour! Yikes.
Scientists, looking at the distribution of matter in the universe, can’t account for this motion that they are seeing of these galaxy clusters. They are all moving in one direction. Weird huh?
Now, scientists have tracked this dark flow deeper into the universe to a distance of 2.5 billion light years. So that’s a lot of galaxies, deep into space, that are being affected by whatever is tugging at them outside of our known universe.
Is this proof that another universe or another type of space or something we can’t even comprehend lies beyond our universe? Scientists think so. Some believe this is clear evidence that something is beyond our universe.
It could be another dimension. It could be another fabric of space all together. It could be a parallel universe. It even could be some structure. Is there more matter of some kind outside of our universe? The possibilities are overwhelming. But one thing we do know, is that it has gravitational pull on our universe. Its affecting our space with some force. And that whatever it may be, it is bigger than our entire universe.
A quote from discovery news article:
It’s like our universe is a box and everything that it contains is inside it like milk in a carton, physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Discovery News.
“If our universe is all that’s there, then the liquid in the box shouldn’t be sliding. Whatever is pulling it has to be bigger than the size of the box,” she said. “There is a structure beyond the horizon of our universe and that structure is exerting a force on our universe and creating this flow.”
One other thing to note, is that string theory predicts this motion if sibling universes were close by our universe. Maybe we (our universe) are the sibling universe being tugged at by our parent universe.
All I can think of is how very very small this makes us. Now that we know something is outside of our universe, we grow smaller than ever. Just in our universe alone, we are microscopic in relative terms. Even smaller than a grain of sand among gazillions of other grains of sand. Now that our universe may be nothing but just another universe among many (a multiverse), how much smaller can we get. It’s a real bummer to find out our significance isn’t significant at all whatsoever.
Sources:
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
If one day scientists found at some places universe is also contracting what would your conclusion be ?
Interestingly, just knowing how we are so small, yet so large at the same time, makes me feel better not worse. life itself is precious and I feel privileged having emotional, intellectual and human capacity, in spite of whatever u or multiverse is tugging….
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/mystery-of-the.html
Actually what U are calling Dark Flow, which is a more recent term, was many years ago, prior to 2008, called the GREAT ATTRACTOR! It was known 10 -20 years ago that something was pulling galaxies toward it. What it is is still unknown.
Alexander Kashlinsky’s measurements and calculations (I beleive)found evidence of a surprisingly coherent 600–1000 km/s[1] flow of clusters toward a 20-degree patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. This work was started in 2008. I’ve heard of the “Great Attractor” (1973). I think the issue of “Dark Flow” is now up to mathmatical interpretation and I haven’t heard much about this recently.
Regina,
My direct e-mail address is: desplanq@telusplanet.net
Thanks,
Eric Desplanque
Calgary
This whole “Dark Flow” issue has implications for all of science and will affect the way we think of ourselves and our place in the cosmos. This is absolutely stunning news and should be on the front of every newspaper. I quess a terrorist attack in Norway has more immediate ‘news worthiness’ though. I look forward to the ongoing discussions and theories and possible explanations on what is happening here. As always, “The biggest question in the Universe is not how, what, when or where…the biggest question is….Why?” All the Best, Eric D. Calgary, Canada
Eric, I agree with you completly. This should be a lot bigger news, for it has HUGE implications. But we humans don’t always know what’s important.
Hi “Regina”,
Thanks for your reply. Want to continue discussions on Dark Flow and other interesting topics directly to my e-mail?
Please let me know when you have a minute.
Eric D.
Calgary
I do enjoy the way you have presented this particular issue and it does indeed supply me a lot of fodder for thought. On the other hand, through just what I have witnessed, I simply just hope when the actual feedback pack on that people continue to be on point and not embark upon a tirade regarding some other news du jour. Anyway, thank you for this fantastic piece and though I can not really go along with the idea in totality, I regard the viewpoint.
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