From: ilyes@earthlink.net Subject: ASTRONOMERS SAY UNIVERSE MAY BE POTATO-CHIP SHAPED By LAWRENCE SPOHN, The Albuquerque Tribune. Distributed by Scripps Howard. Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 15:44:50 -0400 Copyright © 1998 Scripps-McClatchy Western ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (February 24, 1998 00:30 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - New Mexico telescope observations of distant galaxies suggest that the universe may be curved, like a potato chip. "It's not inconsistent with a sphere, but right now the best fit is a saddle or potato-chip shape," said Ari Buchalter, a doctoral astronomy student at Columbia University in New York who is analyzing the telescope data. "While it exists in three dimensions, it's really hard for us to conceive of it except as a two-dimensional shape," Buchalter said of a saddle-curved universe. "Essentially, it's a shape on which two parallel lines would diverge forever." Buchalter's initial assessment uses a cosmic map of radio-emitting stars and galaxies being created with New Mexico's Very Large Array radio telescope. The radio telescope is made up of 27 giant, movable, satellite-like dishes that stretch across the high plains of San Agustin, west of Socorro. Buchalter bases his analysis on 103 very distant galaxies, known as quasars. Quasars are essentially at the edge of the known universe and presumably nearly at the beginning of time. They can be thought of as defining the edge of the fabric we think of as the known universe. Buchalter says he needs between 500 and 1,000 quasars to draw solid conclusions about the shape of the universe, a task he expects to complete in about a year. His data come from FIRST, the continuing VLA sky survey of the Northern Hemisphere that began in 1993. The acronym stands for Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm. The FAINT survey charts heavenly objects that emit radio wavelengths at a band known as 21 centimeters (for hydrogen), a specific wavelength line in the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectrum features all radiation emissions, from visible light and invisible radio waves to X-rays. Buchalter believes his geometric study of the universe could help answer the question of whether the universe is open, which means it will expand forever; closed, which means it ultimately will collapse back on itself; or flat, which means it will attain equilibrium. "Theorists say the universe is flat. Observers say it's open," he said. "If we can get 500 of these galaxies, we should be able to rule in favor of one of them." The VLA's FAINT mapmakers aspire to create the best radio map of the Northern Hemisphere sky. Astronomers hope to use the radio map in conjunction with its New Mexico optical counterpart, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The Sloan survey, which is to produce the most comprehensive astronomical catalog of visible stars and galaxies, is in the works at Apache Point Observatory above Alamogordo. There, astronomers this week are busy installing the final instrument on the Sloan Telescope. Mapping should begin in January.
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