Universe's first objects possibly seen (Space.com/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Robert Roy Britt
SPACE.com

(SPACE.com) -- Astronomers might have seen the very first stars in the universe. If so, these are incredible stars, some 1,000 times as massive as the sun.

The alternative is just as interesting: The objects might be early black holes consuming gas voraciously and spitting out radiation like crazy as nascent galaxies form.

The observations, by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, were first reported on a preliminary basis in November 2005 in the journal Nature. A new analysis was announced Monday.

"We are pushing our telescopes to the limit and are tantalizingly close to getting a clear picture of the very first collections of objects," said Alexander Kashlinsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author on two reports to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. "Whatever these objects are, they are intrinsically incredibly bright and very different from anything in existence today."

The light comes from objects that are more than 13 billion light-years away. That means the light began its journey more than 13 billion years ago. The universe is just a smidgeon older, at 13.7 billion years, and astronomers are pretty sure it took a few hundred million years for the matter of the Big Bang to spread out enough, and cool, to allow the first stars to form.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/12/19/universe.objects/index.html

[TomClash]

1. Rorshach test

The photo reminded me of viewing cells under a microscope.

Interesting.

[xchrom]

2. wow -- amazing.

i can't help but wonder -- what's out past them?

of course -- i suppose it should start to curve...

[Nihil]

3. Pardon my scepticism but I think I'll wait before agreeing

From the article:
> The problem in making sense of it all lies with the fact that the
> observations are not clear-cut. The scientists had to remove light from
> foreground stars and galaxies, and then study fluctuations in what is a
> relatively diffuse light.

So this is still inspired guesswork then?

Once you start munging the images like this, you are on thin ice as far
as "science" is concerned and moving rapidly towards "faith" (albeit faith
in one's pet models rather than in any orthodox religion).

Glad to see new approaches published but not convinced by this one.

[Beelzebud]

9. They aren't "munging" at all. They are observing these objects.

They just don't yet know what they are with our current equipment and techniques. The fact that they remove stars from their images doesn't mean the objects in question aren't there.

[Nihil]

11. No, they are observing *and* modifying.

> The fact that they remove stars from their images doesn't mean the objects
> in question aren't there.

That's correct but it *does* mean that they assume all of the optical effects
removed are associated with the (apparent) objects that they are removing
(and, by definition, assuming that the artifacts they are apparently observing
are not connected with the effects that they have removed).

Hence my comment about "inspired guesswork".

It's all fine and dandy as long as you understand that it is guesswork and
assumption, NOT factual and evidentual, but that distinction is often blurred
these days.

[greenman3610]

4. Everybody knows those objects were put there by Satan

to confuse us.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. I thought God put them there, to test our faith!

God, Satan -- oh, it's so hard to keep them straight!

[Beelzebud]

10. No that was the dinosaur bones!

I love Bill Hicks. :)

[screembloodymurder]

6. If the light is just getting here, and our galaxy was part of the big bang,

how did we get out in front of the light from the explosion? It seems to me that it contradicts the laws of physics. Either the speed of light is not constant or we shouldn't be here to see it.

[Sinistrous]

7. According to Relativity...

the speed of light is constant, regardless of the speed of the observer,

(I am parroting here, so please don't ask me to explain or justify the above.)

Sinistrous

[Beelzebud]

8. We didn't get out in front of it. Everything in the universe is expanding.

These objects are actually way out in front of us. And at the same time, everything in the universe, including us, is still expanding at an increasing rate.

[rman]

12. Space can expand faster than the speed of light

That's part of the currently accepted model.