Water found 11 Millard light years away

A serious post this time: Water has been found in a Galaxy that is about 11.1 Milliard (what the Americans would call a Billion, so 10^9) light years away. With other words, 11.1*10^9 (=11 100 000 000) years ago, water already existed in some areas of the universe. Before now, water had only been found in Galaxies up to half a milliard light years away, so this is a great leap.

The method with which this water could be discovered is quite astonishing too – the telescopes used nowadays can only reach a certain distance – that’s one of the reasons, water could only be found in relatively near galaxies so far. But under certain conditions, a galaxy that lies in between ours and the one that one is trying to watch can work as a sort of magnifying glass, allowing scientists to look much further.

Now what does that mean? I’m no expert, but seeing as at least here on earth, life developed in the sea, this fact could maybe have helped providing circumstances that allowed life to develop in other places of the universe long ago. Just maybe of course, but it’s an interesting thought.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

Source:

http://www1.uni-bonn.de/pressDB/jsp/pressemitteilungsdetails.jsp?detailjahr=2008&detail=364

More info:

A gravitationally lensed water maser in the early Universe, C.M. Violette Impellizzeri, John P. McKean, Paola Castangia, Alan L. Roy, Christian Henkel, Andreas Brunthaler, & Olaf Wucknitz, 2008, Nature (18 December issue)

The extra second

Nearly everybody knows, what a leap year is. Every 4 years (with a few exceptions) February will have an extra day. This is because a year is supposed to represent the time, earth need so circle our sun. But that’s not 365 days – it’s more like 365,25 days. So, an extra day every 4 years.

Now, “more like it” isn’t quite enough. That’s why there are a few exceptions. Fine, our calendar will be right for so and so long.

But there’s something else: Earth isn’t precise. That means, the time our planet needs to circle the sun varies ever so often. Only by a tiny margin, but it varies. That’s no problem for everyday life normally, but atomic clocks for example are more exact than that and as some things have to be as precise as humanly possible, something has to be done. And something is being done.

The IERS is responsible for adding leap seconds ever so often and it’s going to be time to do so soon. When? 23:59:59 UTC on the 31. December this year.

What does that mean? Well for one, it means everyone in a UTC-x timezone (with x>=0) will have one second longer to wait for the new year. And everyone in a UTC+x timezone (x>=1) will have one more second of 2009.

Now, I’m in UTC+1, so I’ll be in the new year for 1h and 1 second when the next timezone enters 2009. Not that it matters much but… HAHA! 😛

Greetings,
Nepomuk

Sources:

livescience.com

astronomy.com

web.de