Bright Cluster, Dark Centre

From the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile. Omega Centauri is 17,000 light years away in the constellation Centaurus. This is the most massive of the globular clusters surrounding our Milky Way. The cluster is 150 light-years across and contains about 10 million stars. In our southern sky it appears nearly as big as the full Moon.

Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini Observatory indicate that the Omega Centauri contains a Black Hole with the mass of 40,000 suns. The cluster is thought to be 12 billion years old. Astronomers have long wondered how globular clusters could have formed before the galaxy's oldest stars had formed. The Black Hole provides an answer. The cluster could have been seeded by a Black Hole like a pearl forming around a grain of sand.

Below is Globular Cluster M13 as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. Early formation of massive Black Holes is one more indication that the speed of light was once much higher.

Dark Side Losing Grip

Galaxy Cluster 2XMM J083026+524133 taken by the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona. The blue glow is X-ray emission from gas at 100 million degrees K. The cluster was first discovered by the ESA's XMM Newton telescope. With a mass 1000 times that of our Milky Way, this is the most massive distant cluster yet found.

Discovery of this cluster has been claimed to be proof of 'Dark Energy.' The original paper makes no mention of DE, but the ESA Press Releasemakes the fantastic claim. The European Space Agency is trying to fund their own "Dark Energy" probe, so we can expect many other 'proofs' of its existence. Perhaps DE will be blamed for hurricanes.

Massive galaxy clusters like this are thought to be rare in the distant Universe. Finding a big one is thought to be due to DE, which would cause the Universe to pull apart in more recent times. According to their theories, the scientists do not expect to find any more. Their statement may sound foolish, for there could be many more big clusters out there. Since size of clusters is limited by a distance related to c, massive clusters indicate a changing speed of light.

In the Universe Today comments, we see how much ridicule DE claims get. Instead of the lone trolls that try to pester this blog, criticism of Dark Energy comes from all sides. While scientists compete for the biggest branes, their reputation continues to sink.

An upcoming paper by Jose Senovilla et al. in Physical Review D suggests that DE is a sympton of time itself slowing down. This is outwardly similiar to the work of David Wiltshire in New Zealand, whom Kea has pointed to. Lacking a mechanism, the Spanish team invokes the speculative world of "branes." Is the accelerated expansion evidence of a forthcoming change of signature on the brane? Slowing of time is mathematically equivalent to a changing speed of light.

GM = tc^3, a child could figure it out.

Hungry Black Holes

Nearby galaxy clusters CL 0542-4100 and CL 0848.6+4453 imaged by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Low energy X-rays are in red, intermediate energy in green, and high energy in blue. A study in the July 20 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters indicates that Black Holes in older clusters are 20 times more active than those in younger clusters. The early Universe was dominated by energetic quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). As they matured and their fuel was used up, these objects evolved into galaxies like our Milky Way.

The Big Bang created billions upon billion of Black Holes. Because the speed of light was higher, primordial Black Holes formed in a variety of sizes. The big ones formed the seeds of clusters and galaxies. Our galaxy formed around a Black Hole like the whirlpool around a drain. Supermassive Black Holes don't die, they just fade away.

Tiny Black Holes could exist within planets, even Earth. This one is too tiny to suck us up, but the tiny amount it does eat keeps Earth's core warm. This heat causes earthquakes, volcanoes and the formation of islands. The Black Hole also powers the magnetic field that protects us from the radiation of space. Our planet and life would not exist if not for a Black Hole.

Speaking of hunger, the Monterey Bay region has been invaded by 2-meter jumbo squid that munch on the local fish population. Previously jumbo squid were only found in warmer Pacific waters. Their appearance near the Central California coast may be a result of Earth's changing climate. Earlier this month in Tasmania, a rare giant squid measuring 8 metres washed ashore near the town of Strahan. When Earth's climate changes the species adapt, a squid pro quo.

Echoes From the Darkness

Two discoveries announced in the past day, seemingly from different scales and regions of the Universe, may be related. The Hubble Space Telescope has found that Galaxy Cluster Cl 0024+17 is surrounded by a halo of dark mass. (This is distinct from "dark energy," which doesn't exist.) This cluster, 5 billion light-years away, apparently formed from a collision of two clusters about 1 billion years before this picture was taken or 6 billion years ago. The impact formed an expanding ring of dark mass which can be detected through gravitational lensing. Though mounting evidence exists, the nature of "dark matter" is still just a subject of speculation.

Just last week we learned of a hot gas giant orbiting inexplicably close to its star. Again using stellar occultation, astronomers have discovered that planet TrES-3 orbits its sun in only 31 hours! It's orbit takes the planet barely 3 million km from a sun. Current theories can not explain these hot Jupiters. In the immense heat near a star almost anything would boil away before forming a planet.

The Big Bang created billions of Black Holes in a variety of sizes. The biggest ones formed the seeds of galaxies and clusters. Smaller singularities formed great haloes around the galaxies, as seen near Cl 0024+17. Many times these objects have collided with a galaxy's disk. They could have formed the seeds of stars and even smaller objects like planets. Presence of a singularity inside "hot Jupiters" would explain their formation and number.

There is new evidence of disk of dark mass deep within our solar system, something I will write about sometime. There is far more out there than meets the eye.