200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way

200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way 448

Posted by kdawson on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:19PM from the axis-of-opportunity dept.

KentuckyFC sends us to arXiv, as is his wont, for a paper (abstract; PDF preprint) making the claim that 200,000 elliptical galaxies are aligned in the same direction; the signal for this alignment stands out at 13 standard deviations. This axis is the same as the controversial alignment found in the cosmic microwave background by the WMAP spacecraft.

200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way

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They're pointing the way to God, but... (Score:2, Funny)

by Lurker2288 ( 995635 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:22PM (#20412731)

...but why would God need a starship?

Holy Crap (Score:2, Funny)

by everphilski ( 877346 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:23PM (#20412735) Journal

WMAP spacecraft.

They are running their spacecraft off of a Windows-MySQL-Apache-PHP stack? well I'll be ...

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by dashslotter ( 1093743 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:23PM (#20412747) Homepage

Does it really matter? 200,000 elliptical galaxies can't be wrong!

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by notque ( 636838 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:26PM (#20412775) Homepage Journal

Because they are terrorists. From the article,

"The axis of the CMB alignments has been referred to as the Axis of Evil"

Easy. They point towards the monolith (Score:5, Funny)

by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) * writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:26PM (#20412777) Homepage Journal

They do. There's a monkey there with a bone as well.

Re:Easy. They point towards the monolith (Score:3, Funny)

by Xonstantine ( 947614 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:28PM (#20412801)

It's either the doing of the Xeelee or the Photino birds. Now we just have to find a way to get to the Great Attractor before the sun burns out.

and here is why they are all alligned (Score:5, Funny)

by FudRucker ( 866063 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:28PM (#20412809)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da2byMoEG30 [youtube.com]

Maybe Dylan was wrong (Score:5, Funny)

by mcmonkey ( 96054 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:28PM (#20412815) Homepage

It seems you do need 200,000 elliptical galaxies to know which way the wind blows.

New Axis (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:29PM (#20412829)

Just don't tell Bush that we've found a new Axis - next thing you know he'll be drawing up plans for a 13,000-galaxy invasion force.

this explains star trek! (Score:4, Funny)

by kisrael ( 134664 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:30PM (#20412845) Homepage

So this might help explain in Star Trek how all ships are always keeping the same orientation / sense of "up"...

obviously... (Score:5, Funny)

by Connie_Lingus ( 317691 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:33PM (#20412879) Homepage

all your axis are belong to us.

Re:which beam (Score:5, Funny)

by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) * writes: <bittercode@gmail> on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:38PM (#20412955) Homepage Journal

nope - the turtle.

"See the TURTLE of enormous girth,
On his shell he holds the earth.
If you want to run and play,
Come along the BEAM today."

einstein was right (Score:5, Funny)

by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) writes: <(circletimessquare) (at) (gmail.com)> on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:41PM (#20413029) Homepage Journal

god doesn't play dice

he plays with magnets

Re:Why? (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @12:54PM (#20413203)
1. Moon orbits Earth
2. Earth orbits Sun
3. Sun orbits Milky way center
4. ???
5. Profit.
Re:A grain of salt (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:00PM (#20413287)

Careful now, demonstrating a firm grasp of projective geometry and sampling/statistics is a good way to get a serious ass beating in certain parts of the US...

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by jimstapleton ( 999106 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:03PM (#20413333) Journal

if 200,000 eliptical galaxies jumped off of a cliff... would you?

Re:What "intelligent design" - just big bang (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:18PM (#20413593)

Now convince Christians, Muslims and Jews to fight over that point in space instead of Jerusalem.

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by ATMD ( 986401 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:19PM (#20413615) Journal

No, I imagine I'd be pulled off the cliff whether I liked it or not by the massive gravitational field...

It's soooooooo fucking obvious... (Score:3, Funny)

by BronsCon ( 927697 ) writes: <social@bronstrup.com> on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:32PM (#20413797) Journal

We're all being sucked into the same black hole!

Markers! (Score:2, Funny)

by CoolAcid ( 579220 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:49PM (#20414063) Homepage

The Vogons set these up - It's the marker lines for the new interstellar highway. Didn't you all read the details at the interstellar planning office on Alpha Centauri?

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by spun ( 1352 ) writes: <loverevolutionary@@@yahoo...com> on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:56PM (#20414143) Journal

Fortunately, in a billion years Andromeda will merge with the Milky Way so we'll be able to get genuine Andromedan cuisine right here in the newly formed Andromilkeday galaxy.

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by Kingrames ( 858416 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @01:58PM (#20414167)

IANAP = I am not a planet?

Pluto? is that you?

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

by yada21 ( 1042762 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @02:04PM (#20414257)

You translated it wrong. A more accurate rendation is "can we have some more funding please?"

Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

by nschubach ( 922175 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @02:32PM (#20414631) Journal

By your reasoning: One "entity" could be the shared properties, another "entity" is the collection of galaxies, and the third "entity" is space. Or am I thinking too object oriented on this?

God, caught red-handed! (Score:2, Funny)

by sonciwind ( 970454 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @02:37PM (#20414685)

He went to a lot of trouble to make things look random and natural, but this is obviously just a bunch of copies he whipped out to fill up space. for(int i=0;i200000;i++)myEllipticalGalaxy.Clone();

Couldn't resist: (Score:3, Funny)

by flimflam ( 21332 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @03:21PM (#20415199)

actually centripetal force - centrifugal force is actually a convenient fiction
Centrifugal Force [xkcd.com]

Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

by Marty_Krapturd ( 817250 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @03:47PM (#20415573) Homepage

I just looked at the wikipedia page on Brans-Dicke theory and it shows nothing about angular momentum. Perhaps you care to explain?

It has to do with fiber and penises...you wouldn't understand.

Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

by tsm_sf ( 545316 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:08PM (#20416635) Journal

Good to have you back, Feynman. We missed you.

Re:Why Not? (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:11PM (#20416683)

Tuesday.

Re:Why? (Score:4, Funny)

by M1FCJ ( 586251 ) writes: on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:43PM (#20417169) Homepage

it's a long string and all of the galaxies are tied to it, like beads...

Re:Why? (Score:3, Funny)

by bcmm ( 768152 ) writes: on Friday August 31, 2007 @06:52AM (#20422597)

What exactly does an experimental astrophysicist do? Create galaxies to see how they behave?

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200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way 448

200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way More Login

200,000 Elliptical Galaxies Point the Same Way

They're pointing the way to God, but... (Score:2, Funny)

Holy Crap (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

Easy. They point towards the monolith (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Easy. They point towards the monolith (Score:3, Funny)

and here is why they are all alligned (Score:5, Funny)

Maybe Dylan was wrong (Score:5, Funny)

New Axis (Score:1, Funny)

this explains star trek! (Score:4, Funny)

obviously... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:which beam (Score:5, Funny)

einstein was right (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:1, Funny)

Re:A grain of salt (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:What "intelligent design" - just big bang (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

It's soooooooo fucking obvious... (Score:3, Funny)

Markers! (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

God, caught red-handed! (Score:2, Funny)

Couldn't resist: (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Why Not? (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Why? (Score:3, Funny)

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