Esto no es más que una prueba a favor de la teoría de que Douglas Adams se murió, pero poco.
El 31 de marzo, y posiblemente con vistas al 1 de abril (el día de los inocentes anglosajón), Marven F. Pedbost y Trillean Pomalgu, del Instituto de Cosmología de Brentwood, Reino Unido, subieron a arxiv.org un artículo titulado Galaxy Zoo: an unusual new class of galaxy cluster, en el que afirmaban haber descubierto, con la ayuda de Galaxy Zoo y sus voluntarios, un nuevo tipo de cluster galáctico:
One of the most distinctive aspects of this cluster is the morphologies and colours of its component galaxies. Many of its members have blue colours and show clear evidence of spiral morphology, even if the spiral arms are often disturbed. These disturbed morphologies are probably the result of a high frequency of close pairs and merging systems. Such a high fraction of merging systems is unexpected for high mass clusters due to the large velocity dispersion, and much more typical of lower mass galaxy groups.
Another unusual aspect is the morphology of the cluster as a whole. The structure is rather linear, and boxy, reminiscent of the filaments seen in N-body simulations. However, the observed galaxy density is far higher than seen in simulations of filaments. There is no obvious central concentration of the number density or luminosity profile, unlike any normal cluster of this richness. Weak lensing and x-ray data may assist in understanding this cluster’s strange appearance, by adding information on the distribution of the cluster’s dark matter and gas content.
Finally, but perhaps most surprising, is that upon detailed inspection, the morphologies of individual galaxies and close systems approximate the familiar geometric shapes of letters of the basic modern Latin alphabet. From East to West and North to South, respectively, these shapes may be represented as “w e a p o l o g i s e f o r t h e i n c o n v e n i e n c e”. Although galaxies displaying morphologies corresponding to Latin characters have been noticed before, `S’ and `Z’ being particularly common, a localised collection of this size is highly improbable.
Lo van a entender mejor con una fotografía:
No es casualidad que el primer elemento en la lista de referencias del artículo sea So long, and thanks for all the fish.
(Gracias a Inés por el soplo.)
Me alegro de que te gustara :D
Y sobre el artículo… Las imágenes son muy graciosas, pero el texto no se queda atrás. Y hay algún detalle para los entendidos (las coordenadas de los cúmulos son imposibles).
Malditos, al final me obligaréis a leer las novelas de Douglas Adams.
Jasev, deberías saber que el mundo se divide en dos clases de personas: los que nos hemos leído las novelas de Douglas Adams y los que os la vais a leer ;)
Me gusta lo de “space is, after all, not only big, but really big”.