Astrophysicists create the first accurate map of the universe: It’s very flat, and probably infinite

[Judi Lynn]

Astrophysicists create the first accurate map of the universe: It’s very flat, and probably infinite
By Sebastian Anthony on January 9, 2014 at 12:57 pm

After analyzing more than three years of continuous observations from one of the world’s widest-angle telescopes in New Mexico, astrophysicists have compiled the most accurate map ever of the universe. Spanning a distance of over six billion light years, the new map plots the location of 1.2 million galaxies with an accuracy of 99%. This means that the distance between galaxies on the map is accurate to within 1% of the actual distance — an astonishing feat when you consider that we’re doing the measuring from a single point of space and observing tiny specks of light that are trillions of miles away. The new map provides some of the best evidence that the universe is flat, and that it’s “likely” the universe is infinite, extending forever into space and time.

This new map was created from the BOSS – Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey — which is one of the projects being carried out by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III on a 2.5-meter wide-angle reflector telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. The BOSS, which probably has the coolest name in all of science, stares up at the night sky looking for baryon acoustic oscillations — waves of particles and energy that were created when the universe was young, and continue to spread like ripples in a pond. Without getting too deep into the physics of it, at some point during the universe’s formative years, an overdense region of primordial plasma exploded outwards, sending baryons (another word for protons and neutrons) out into space. Because these baryon waves move at a standard speed, it’s possible to use them as a very accurate intergalactic ruler (measuring almost exactly 490 million light years in this case). With this ruler in hand, BOSS can rather accurately map where galaxies are located in the universe.


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An artist’s rendition of the BOSS galactic map
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“Twenty years ago astronomers were arguing about estimates that differed by up to 50%. Five years ago, we’d refined that uncertainty to 5%; a year ago it was 2%,” BOSS chief investigator David Schlegel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory told the BBC. “One percent accuracy will be the standard for a long time to come.”

At this point you’re probably wondering what we can do with a 99%-accurate map of the nearby universe (yes, this isn’t a map of the entire universe — 1.2 million galaxies is just a tiny sliver). Will it be used by NASA to plot its first intergalactic mission? No (but it’s nice to dream). A highly accurate galactic ruler and map is useful for one main reason: It tells us a lot about how the universe actually functions. If you have an accurate galactic ruler, it then becomes fairly easy to work out whether the universe is flat or curved, and whether the universe is static, expanding, or contracting. [Research paper: arXiv:1312.4877 - "The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 10 and 11 galaxy samples"]

More:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/174427-astrophysicists-create-the-first-accurate-map-of-the-universe-its-very-flat-and-probably-infinite

[Deep13]

1. So by "flat" does it mean that...

...the expansion from dark energy is very closely balanced against the contractive force of gravity?

[Locut0s]

2. I don't believe the two are necessarily related...

This article seem to be talking about the local shape of the universe and it seems that it's locally flat or very very close to it. Globally I'm not sure if we can say yet what the shape is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_of_the_universe

As you can see it's possible to have both a flat and spherical universe with a lot of dark energy both of which would expand forever.

"
In the absence of dark energy, a flat universe expands forever but at a continually decelerating rate, with expansion asymptotically approaching zero. With dark energy, the expansion rate of the universe initially slows down, due to the effect of gravity, but eventually increases. The ultimate fate of the universe is the same as that of an open universe.
"

"
In a closed universe lacking the repulsive effect of dark energy, gravity eventually stops the expansion of the universe, after which it starts to contract until all matter in the observable universe collapses to a point, a final singularity termed the Big Crunch, by analogy with Big Bang. However, if the universe has a large amount of dark energy (as suggested by recent findings), then the expansion of the universe could continue forever.
"

So wether the universe is flat or not is a separate question from how much dark energy it has which determines it's ultimate fate.

This article is about the topological shape of the universe. It's like we are back in the days of the cave man trying to determine the shape of the earth. Only in this case it's a much more complex matter than just flat or round. But some of the same similarities exist? A bounded finite universe would more akin to a round sphere with a well defined volume and the ability to return to where you started. An infinite flat universe is more like a flat plane that extends forever.

[defacto7]

3. To touch the face of god...

question is, under which hides the pea.