Hubble Finds Double Einstein Ring 168
Einstein Duble brings us news that astronomers using the Hubble Telescope have discovered an extremely rare double Einstein Ring. Occasionally, galaxies or other bright objects are located in such a way that they are behind another galaxy when viewed from Earth. When light from the further galaxy passes a sufficiently massive closer galaxy, the path of the light is bent inward from all sides, creating a "ring" effect. In this case, not one, but two galaxies are directly behind the foreground galaxy, so the gravitational lens produces two distinct rings. Quoting Presscue:
"The distribution of dark matter in the foreground galaxies that is warping space to create the gravitational lens can be precisely mapped. In addition, the geometry of the two Einstein rings allowed the team to measure the mass of the middle galaxy precisely to be a value of 1 billion solar masses. The team reports that this is the first measurement of the mass of a dwarf galaxy at cosmological distance (redshift of z=0.6)."
Who said Hubble was a waste of money? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who said Hubble was a waste of money? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who said Hubble was a waste of money? (Score:5, Insightful)
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They are saying that the total weight of the galaxy is 1 billion solar masses. They probably don't have it down to the gram, but an accuracy of 1 solar mass would be a huge accomplishment.
It's kind of like when someone says that their mass is equal to X kilos, they don't mean that they are composed of X weights stored in France.
Re:Who said Hubble was a waste of money? (Score:4, Insightful)
C'mon, homefry. Walk the walk if you're gonna talk the talk.
Re:Who said Hubble was a waste of money? (Score:5, Insightful)
C'mon, homefry. Walk the walk if you're gonna talk the talk.
Some Libertarians might be against funding things like Hubble. I personally am more concerned with personal freedom, and a balanced budget. Private industry isn't going to do certain things, Hubble is a prime example. The last thing this country needs to do is cut scientific research.
I agree, but... (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm glad to see that there are at least a few veins of common sense among the Libertarians, though, because the extreme sort are the most noisy.
Re:I agree, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Layne
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Don't call yourself libertarian to appear cool (Score:2)
Libertarians run the gamut of the libertarian spectrum,
What libertartian spectrum? Libertarianism is cut and dried. Strong property rights, no coercive government, free association, that's it.
Maybe they aren't libertarians but some other form of anarchist. I'm sick an tired of libertarianism co-opting every form of anarchism as if they invented it. Libertarians that believe in government funding of anything aren't libertarians, and could be considered anarchists only by a large stretch of the definition. You don't get to redefine words to suit your personal ph
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In my opinion, where there isn't a free market (abusive monopoly, natural monopoly), some form of regulation is required. It should be the minimum necessary, of course, though.
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Although, I have to admit, I'm happy that a bunch of non-libertarians with some understanding of real world economics are cop-opting libertarianism. But you might want to take a loo
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I can call dog poo a fudge sundae, but that won't convince most people to eat it. Words
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Libertarians run the gamut from Ayn Rand worshipers to people that are merely fiscally conservative and socially liberal. The problem is that with a system that's only balanced with two parties, the moderates have to choose - and end up labeled as "neo-liberals" or "pro gay marriage conservatives" - while the reputation of the term "libertarian" ends up being se
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Personal freedom, sound economic policy, measured intervention in things that won't look after themselves - isn't this what we used to call 'Liberalism'? All the Libertarians I have encountered labour under the delusion that they are universal experts and that nobody but them (least of all people with actual domain-specific training!) should be doing any resource allocation. They don't want to fund street repairs - in case someone else uses tarmac they helped pay for - let alone science. Certainly a total f
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Look, you can be for cutting down the federal government to a manageable level and that doesn't mean that you would prefer that 100% of the current duties of the federal government to be eliminated.
Though it is a convenient bit of ammunition. Take the most radical element that ever claimed to be of the movement and use them as a strawman for the entire movement.
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That said, the recent developments in Libertarianism are promising. I wouldn't vote for hi
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Yes, well, the 'kooks' in question actually seem to identify themselves as the Libertarian Party of Canada. So I guess I did believe them, yes. The fact that they are kooks—that was my point.
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Ha-ha... Those are universal values. The political distinction depends on what you call "personal freedom", what is sound economic policy, how you measure the intervention, and which things you identify as incapable of "looking after themselves".
"Liberalism" in America tends to consider free health care (at someone else's expense) an inalienable right,
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(A quick and pointed but somewhat facetious response, more later if possible...)
It sounds to me as if your main objection is to being made to do things at gunpoint. How curious, then, that disarming society is not item #1 on the agenda! I would certainly agree that an armed person is without moral authority, but do you mean it, I wonder?
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Maybe, it is because I never faced a gun of a fellow American? Only that of the Government...
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This is interesting in another way. I've thought for a long time that you guys need to take back your government. It seems from your words that you yourself no longer even conceptualise them as Americans, much less your representatives! From your earlier post it really does seem as if you are not defending a political ideal so much as complaining that the present American implementation of government sucks—an
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I think you mean "Some people are UNWILLING to create organisations that provide people other than themselves with certain services. Therefore, people create organisations that REQUIRE the unwilling to fund organisations that provide everyone with certain services."
This is the fundamental problem with the most visible forms of libertarianism IMHO.
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I said nothing of the kind. You are putting words in my mouth.
I'm fully aware that the system is broken in several ways. My point was that without SOME kind of organization to FORCE the otherwise unwilling to contribute to a system that is more cost-effective as a result of i
Re:Who said Hubble was a waste of money? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I hate this sort of thing. Any proposal has good and bad sides. When you're making a decision you count them and weigh them against eachother. Then you make a decision. Obviously, he values 'really free market' really highly, but that doesn't mean he's not allowed to acknowledge the cases when there are more cons to his approach than usual.
Acknowledging arguments and still making a decision is a sign of intelligence. Trying to force somebody else to make false choices, or attributing false opinions to them is stupid.. and way too bloody common.
Libertarian vs. Intelligent (Score:2)
Acknowledging arguments and still making a decision is a sign of intelligence.
Definitely! But it's not necessarily Libertarian®.
Trying to force somebody else to make false choices, or attributing false opinions to them is stupid.. and way too bloody common.
Hey, nobody forced mastershake_phd to put that in his signature. If someone's going to self-label, anyone else is free to call them on it IMO. It's not like the signature said "Intelligent Pragmatic Political Discussion Forum."
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So, in order to be allowed to be intelligent and pragramatic without anyone complaining you have to hide your political affections?
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Thanks for illustrating exactly what's wrong with American politics today.
"Don't you dare disagree with the Party position."
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So you mean Libertarian Socialism, or Anarchism. That wouldn't make you necessarily against Hubble Research.
Oh.. You meant Right Wing Statism?
Re:Mod As Offtopic (Hubble funding politics) (Score:1)
Hey, gravity-lensing made one of the L's bigger
Which part of the knowledge is useful? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Which part of the knowledge is useful? (Score:4, Insightful)
The universe is understood by using phenomenae like this to test our theories and provide a sort of astronomical 'yard stick' by which we can measure other objects. Objects that without this yard stick would be less well understood. One discovery is built upon another until, one by one, they form the sum of our understanding.
So why not go out and measure the mass of that little rock in your backyard? Wouldn't it be amazing to discover that it had a density of 19.3 g/mL?
Re:Which part of the knowledge is useful? (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no useless knowledge. There is knowledge we don't know how to use yet but no useless knowledge. Time will show, determining mass of a galaxy might turn out to be an essential calculation 300 years from now on, given civilization continues to evolve until then.
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It's a handy piece of evidence against young-earth creationism because it's indisputable evidence that the universe has been functioning according to the laws of physics as we understand them for billions of years.
Some young-earth creationists try to explain away the problem of light from distant stars by saying that the laws of physics may have been different or may have changed, allowing light to reach us from the most distant galaxies without taking millions or billions of years to get here.
This obse
And to them, we are the ring (Score:4, Interesting)
* The one that's the "foreground galaxy" to us would be the inner ring.
* The one that's the "first ring" to us would be the foreground galaxy for them and
* The Milky Way would appear as the outer ring!
Re:And to them, we are the ring (Score:5, Insightful)
* The one that's the "foreground galaxy" to us would be the inner ring.
* The one that's the "first ring" to us would be the foreground galaxy for them and
* The Milky Way would appear as the outer ring!
Actually, that's not the case. I'll give you a hint. The reason is because of something the guy these rings are named after, figured out. These galaxies aren't aligned. They just look that way from our perspective. From the other direction, it's extremely unlikely these 4 galaxies ever aligned, as odd as that sounds.
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of the light will be exactly the same since the path is dictated by the perturbation of spacetime.
You forgot about time (Score:5, Insightful)
This does not mean that the reverse is true. It does not mean that there is a line that the Milky Way was on 11 billion years ago, and galaxy 3 was on 8 billion years ago, and galaxy 2 was on 5 billion years ago, and galaxy 3 is on now. Why not? Because galaxies move.
Still, even if not technically correct, it was a really awesome thought by the OP...
You forgot about mass too (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:You forgot about time (Score:4, Insightful)
We are at "hypothetical centre of the big bang", as is everything else.
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The communications delay is gonna make online gaming with those guys a bit cumbersome.
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You're forgetting that light travels at a finite speed.
Galaxy 1 emitted light 11 bya which interacted with galaxy 2, 3 and now shines on Earth.
There is no "reverse path" for light from the Milky to take.
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If the galaxies look aligned from our perspective, they will look aligned from theirs. The inverse path
of the light will be exactly the same since the path is dictated by the perturbation of spacetime.
I fail to see how this might be modded Troll. As for the statement, however, it doesn't work both ways - An Einstein Ring or Einstein Cross is not a discreet feature in space, it's an event similar in principle as an eclipse or occultation, and just as ephemeral
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This isn't "insightful" because it's factually incorrect, and it's isn't "troll" because he isn't trying to incite or annoy anyone. If you think it's modded up too much, use "overrated".
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So... there is a God (Score:4, Funny)
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Double slit experiment (Score:1)
Extemely Rare? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not as amazing.. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Not as amazing.. (Score:5, Funny)
Whew! (Score:4, Funny)
Would you please take the ECW off the SciFi Chan.. (Score:2)
Halo? (Score:2)
Obligatory Futurama (Score:3, Funny)
Kif: "It appears to be the mothership"
Brannigan: "Then what did we just blow up?"
Kif: "The Hubble Telescope"
Scientists are hopeful... (Score:1)
Chris Mattern
non-slashdotted hubble double ring article(w/pics) (Score:5, Informative)
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TFA was cool, but those comments really depressed me. Sadly, most people still don't understand that their cell phone and their GPS receiver and a half million other things we take for gran
Einstein comment (Score:2)
Ba dum bum (Score:5, Funny)
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Apologies to Macbeth (Score:5, Funny)
Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble
Hubble finds an Einstein double
Give a shivering man a lit match and it will warm him for a few minutes.
Set him on fire and it will keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Duble? (Score:2)
odds of this (Score:3, Insightful)
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Propaganda (Score:2)
Re:Propaganda (Score:4, Informative)
Yes it is kind of like propaganda to assume dark matter theory is right, but that's the best theory there is. "Dark matter" is just a name for "whatever causes these observations." Whatever it is looks and acts like a gravitational field. Mass produces a gravitational field, so it's assumed to there's some sort of invisible mass, some sort of "dark matter." And they can still "precisely map" the gravitational field, regardless of what is causing it.
And unless you know something physicists don't know, there's not a "number of things" that could cause a gravitational field like that. Interestingly, there is another theory, ether theory [nationalgeographic.com], but even the physicist who came up with it says: "We're offering an alternative to the dark matter theory--we're not saying it's wrong. If I had to bet today on which of these theories was correct, I might bet on dark matter."
Not Exactly (Score:2)
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Another interesting alternative to the dark matter theory is the TeVeS [physicsworld.com] (Tensor Vector Scalar) theory of gravity. It is powerful enough to explain gravitational lensing, and the Bullet cluster as well.
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But the existence of dark matter is not a matter of debate:
How much of the interstellar dust and debris do you think is visible?
We've inferred planets that we can't see from the wobble of their stars.
And, since we can't reconcile the motions of galaxies with the distributions of the visible matter (stars) we try to infer the distribution of unse
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neat -- it provides an example anyone can grasp (Score:2)
What I love about this is that it provides an obvious example of a law of physics in action. In high school, my physics teacher told me that gravity distorts space, and my reaction was, OK, sure you can probably come to that conclusion through a long series of complex (or at least clever and not immediately obvious) experiments and lots of math, but I'll have to take your word for it.
This, however, is a simple, simple thing that causes anyone who looks at the photo to want an explanation. That makes i
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They're called 'airplanes' and we even have a place to park them called 'airports'
Re:Yay Hubble (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Precise (Score:5, Interesting)
His calculations came out to precisely 29,000 feet. Thinking no-one would believe such a round number, he added two feet to make 29,002 feet but was greatly annoyed by the whole thing.
Later it was more accurately measured at 29,029 feet (going from memory here) using lasers or something.
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Re:Here come's the PR Blitz (Score:5, Insightful)
It's sad that spending money to unravel the secrets of the universe is sneered at (see parent) while large numbers of people and entire news networks (not necessarily including parent) champion spending trillions of dollars to keep poking the middle east hornet's nest (And apparently think that if we keep poking, the hornets will get tired and give up).
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Though my present occupation has its biases. I'd always prefer to see my tax dollars thrown at understanding our universe, rather than war.
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So do you care to point out what exactly is wrong with that?
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Read up (Score:2)
Study a little physics [wikipedia.org] and you won't have to ask questions like that anymore.
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The explanation brought about by relativity is that mass distorts spacetime around it, and we observe the resulting effects as gravity.
Relativity also predicts an "effective mass" for light which depends on its energy (which in turn depends only on its wavelength). Hence the famous equation E=mc^2.
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Galaxy A curves space, causing the "straight" lines between Galaxy B and the Earth to no longer be unique. There is