Intergalactic distances can now be measured with 99% accuracy - Polidicks

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25663810[/url] [quote]The BOSS team used baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) as a "standard ruler" to measure intergalactic distances. BOSS data is acquired by the 2.5m Sloan telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico BAOs are the "frozen" imprints of pressure waves that moved through the early universe - and help set the distribution of galaxies we see today. "Nature has given us a beautiful ruler," said Ashley Ross, an astronomer from the University of Portsmouth. "The ruler happens to be half a billion light years long, so we can use it to measure distances precisely, even from very far away." Determining distance is a fundamental challenge of astronomy: "Once you know how far away it is, learning everything else about it is suddenly much easier," said Daniel Eisenstein, director of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. The BOSS distances will help calibrate fundamental cosmological properties - such as how "dark energy" accelerates the expansion of the universe. The latest results indicate dark energy is a cosmological constant whose strength does not vary in space or time. They also provide an excellent estimate of the curvature of space. "The answer is, it's not curved much. The universe is extraordinarily flat," said Prof Schlegel. "And this has implications for whether the universe is infinite."[/quote] I have no idea how useful this is, but it is rad as fuck.

Incoming 'dick length' puns.

that's pretty BOSS

That means it can now measure my penis with +/-1% accuracy. Good but not great, step it up science!

Science is BOSS. [quote]The latest results indicate dark energy is a cosmological constant whose strength does not vary in space or time. They also provide an excellent estimate of the curvature of space. "The answer is, it's not curved much. The universe is extraordinarily flat," said Prof Schlegel. [B]"And this has implications for whether the universe is infinite."[/B][/quote] This is pretty huge. ok now I'm done

[quote]said Daniel Eisenstein[/quote] Got you, Einstein.

1% of 1/2 billion light years is still 50 million light years...

[QUOTE=Angus725;43478678]1% of 1/2 billion light years is still 50 million light years...[/QUOTE] So? What do you want, a proton width? The fraction of the whole distance is what's important.

Wait, the universe is extraordinarily flat? I thought it'd be more like a ball or an amorphous blob, but now it sounds more like a pizza. Main question now is is it Italian style or Deep Pan?

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;43478716]So? What do you want, a proton width? The fraction of the whole distance is what's important.[/QUOTE] Still a fucking annoying distance to walk by foot if you miss your bus stop.

If we discover that the universe is in fact finite, [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle"]the holographic principle[/URL] steps into becoming the new hotness. That is, if it isn't shown up by the theory that [URL="https://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20130917-a-jewel-at-the-heart-of-quantum-physics/"]spacetime is a consequence of geometry[/URL]. (I don't understand this one either.)

[QUOTE=Samg381;43478245]Incoming 'dick length' puns.[/QUOTE] Still not long enough to measure mine hueauehauehauehaeeuehieh

[QUOTE=ironman17;43478735]Wait, the universe is extraordinarily flat? I thought it'd be more like a ball or an amorphous blob, but now it sounds more like a pizza. Main question now is is it Italian style or Deep Pan?[/QUOTE] One of my favourite things my cosmology lecturer said at the start of last year (or maybe it was the year before... I forget) was, "the universe is [I]unbelievably[/I] flat," which, for some reason, left myself and two friends in fits of giggles.

[QUOTE=ironman17;43478735]Wait, the universe is extraordinarily flat? I thought it'd be more like a ball or an amorphous blob, but now it sounds more like a pizza. Main question now is is it Italian style or Deep Pan?[/QUOTE] Just pretend it's a Calzone and everything will be fine.

This is literally withcraft.

[QUOTE=ironman17;43478735]Wait, the universe is extraordinarily flat? I thought it'd be more like a ball or an amorphous blob, but now it sounds more like a pizza. Main question now is is it Italian style or Deep Pan?[/QUOTE] Well, I hope you like thin crust pizza, because the universe is apparently extraordinarily flat. If anything, galaxies like our own and like the others we know of would fit better with the analogies of thicker pizza types. Also, I just realized, by making these kinds of pizza comparisons, I'm insinuating that the universe is a giant thin-crust pizza topped with smaller, beefier pizzas. And that just raises a whole bunch of other pizza-related questions. For example, would a universe made entirely of pizza be shaped like a pizza? Or would it be shaped like some unrelated object, like a blob of gelatin?

99% isn't accurate enough if we ever get to the point of FTL. 1% is the difference between landing next to a planet, or landing inside the sun that the planet is orbiting.

[QUOTE=Grenadiac;43478269]That means it can now measure my penis with +/-1% accuracy. Good but not great, step it up science![/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but I don't think humanity is that advanced in microscopes yet.

So this supports the infinite theory, but if it is flat, doesn't that mean at some point heading "up" or "down" would result in leaving the universe? I just don't physically see how something can be infinite, I mean eventually there has to be a point where there is no more material for there to be planets or stars, and I constantly wonder what is beyond that threshold. Infinite darkness? If so, how? Space confuses the ever living shit out of me because the idea of a vast endless vacuum makes no sense, and also makes me wonder what was around before the big bang, I mean questions just keep popping up. "what made the universe?" "The big bang!" "How did the infinite black vacuum that our universe is in came to be and is there an end to it?" I mean I just can't wrap around my mind that there is just endless empty space out there, it is somewhat unsettling.

[QUOTE=1chains1;43483363]So this supports the infinite theory, but if it is flat, doesn't that mean at some point heading "up" or "down" would result in leaving the universe? I just don't physically see how something can be infinite, I mean eventually there has to be a point where there is no more material for there to be planets or stars, and I constantly wonder what is beyond that threshold. Infinite darkness? If so, how? Space confuses the ever living shit out of me because the idea of a vast endless vacuum makes no sense, and also makes me wonder what was around before the big bang, I mean questions just keep popping up. "what made the universe?" "The big bang!" "How did the infinite black vacuum that our universe is in came to be and is there an end to it?" I mean I just can't wrap around my mind that there is just endless empty space out there, it is somewhat unsettling.[/QUOTE] Well, look at it this way. We have no idea what lies outside our universe because we have never been able to [I]see[/I] outside our universe. For all we know, this could just be one universe out of a plane of billions or trillions of other universes, and it makes sense when you think about it. Take the heat death of the universe, for example. It may seem like the end of everything ever, but the same thing happens with stars, and even lifeforms. Yes, you have plenty of each dying but there's always new ones being born and even others still continuing to live. What is to say our universe isn't just like another star? Perhaps there are others being born as we speak, and others living. The whole infinite reaches of space itself is still a mysterious thing and even though we continue to learn and understand what we can see from the universe, everything from the vast stars to the tiniest subatomic particle, there's still so much more we do not yet have the capacity, the knowledge, or the technology to learn. The point here being, the answers will come to us, and I have no doubt myself that something lies beyond the reaches of our own universe. Science is just one big mystery that we continue to learn and experiment to unravel, after all!

[QUOTE=nikomo;43482892]99% isn't accurate enough if we ever get to the point of FTL. 1% is the difference between landing next to a planet, or landing inside the sun that the planet is orbiting.[/QUOTE] except that by the time we develop FTL travel, we'll most probably have better distance measuring technology as well; this is only a big step in technology