Space bubble theory

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 6

Space bubble theory

NZPA-AFP Cambridge, Massachusetts A new map of a section of the sky supports a recent theory that the stars and galaxies rest on giant “bubbles” and could alter how scientists view the largescale structure of the universe, according to a team of Harvard University researchers. “In the past, people primarily thought that galaxies were distributed in (the universe) in clusters and filaments,” said an astronomer, John Huchra, of the Har-vard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. “It doesn’t look like that’s right,” he said. “It looks like galaxies are distributed on the surface of bubbles. “If we’re right, these bubbles fill the universe just like suds filling the kitchen sink.” The new study showed a universe that appeared to

be made up of giant voids with galaxies distributed on their surfaces, Mr Huchra said. "We probably are sitting on the surface of a bubble. We can’t see the other bubbles until we look deep enough.” He is an author of a report to be published in the March 1 issue of the “Astrophysical Journal Letters.” The other authors are Margaret Geller and Valerie De Lapparent. The authors, presenting their findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Houston yesterday, said their observations posed serious challenges to models of the formation of large-scale structure in the universe. One of the largest “bubbles,” called the “boutes void” had been previouslyidentified, but astronomers belived it to be an isolated or rare phenomena, the authors said.