Anand Raichoor (EPFL), Ashley Ross (Ohio State University) and the SDSS Collaboration<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The green section highlights galaxies closest to Earth, from data gathered during the first two SDSS runs. The pink and red circles cover the region up to about six billion light-years away, from observations of large, old, red galaxies. A little beyond that, the data comes from younger blue galaxies. To map even further out, to about 11 billion years ago, data was collected from quasars, which are bright galaxies with very active supermassive black holes at their centers.<\/p>\n
The resulting map revealed a few new tidbits of information for astronomers. The researchers were able to use the map to measure the rate that the universe is expanding – a value known as the Hubble Constant. Strangely enough, they found the current value to be about 10 percent lower than when it’s calculated by measuring distances to nearby galaxies.<\/p>\n
The team says that the data from the map is very precise, and made up of different data sets that all have the same conclusion. Exactly why there’s a mismatch for the Hubble Constant is a mystery that will require further study, the researchers say.<\/p>\n
The study also showed that the expansion of the universe seemed to speed up about six billion years ago. It’s well known that the rate of expansion is accelerating<\/a>, but nailing down when this began has been tricky in the past. Previous studies have suggested it started some four billion years ago, but the new data indicates it was earlier. A force dubbed “dark energy<\/a>” is our current best guess for what is causing this acceleration.<\/p>\nAnd finally, since the study covers such a large section of space and time, it’s able to give one of the clearest pictures of what “shape” the universe is. Whether it’s flat or curved is the subject of ongoing argument for astrophysicists, but the new SDSS map adds evidence to it being flat.<\/p>\n
The SDSS will continue to study the cosmos in ever more detail, with a new phase of operations due to begin later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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