How fast are we moving through space? (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It’s less about the speed and more about investing the right amount of time and attention in the problem so you solve it.” –Carl Honore

If you wanted to know how fast you were moving through space, you’d need to measure it all: the Earth’s rotation, our motion around the Sun, the Sun’s motion through the galaxy, the Milky Way’s speed within the local group, and finally how the local group moved relative to the Universe. All in all, it’s a daunting, virtually impossible task without literally measuring everything in the entire Universe itself.

Image credit: Cosmography of the Local Universe — Courtois, Helene M. et al. Astron.J. 146 (2013) 69 arXiv:1306.0091 [astro-ph.CO].

Or, you could take advantage of an amazing fact: the leftover glow from the Big Bang exhibits a redshift in one direction and a blueshift in the other. In other words, the cosmic microwave background has a dipole, and that dipole tells us our motion relative to the Universe!

Image credit: The pre-launch Planck Sky Model: a model of sky emission at submillimetre to centimetre wavelengths — Delabrouille, J. et al.Astron.Astrophys. 553 (2013) A96 arXiv:1207.3675 [astro-ph.CO].

What is it, and what does that mean for the local group? Find out today!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1i08pAW

“The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It’s less about the speed and more about investing the right amount of time and attention in the problem so you solve it.” –Carl Honore

If you wanted to know how fast you were moving through space, you’d need to measure it all: the Earth’s rotation, our motion around the Sun, the Sun’s motion through the galaxy, the Milky Way’s speed within the local group, and finally how the local group moved relative to the Universe. All in all, it’s a daunting, virtually impossible task without literally measuring everything in the entire Universe itself.

Image credit: Cosmography of the Local Universe — Courtois, Helene M. et al. Astron.J. 146 (2013) 69 arXiv:1306.0091 [astro-ph.CO].

Or, you could take advantage of an amazing fact: the leftover glow from the Big Bang exhibits a redshift in one direction and a blueshift in the other. In other words, the cosmic microwave background has a dipole, and that dipole tells us our motion relative to the Universe!

Image credit: The pre-launch Planck Sky Model: a model of sky emission at submillimetre to centimetre wavelengths — Delabrouille, J. et al.Astron.Astrophys. 553 (2013) A96 arXiv:1207.3675 [astro-ph.CO].

What is it, and what does that mean for the local group? Find out today!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1i08pAW