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Show Page A20 - THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, Sunday, October 30, 1994 Hubble observations may have universe theorists seeing stars By DAVID L. CHANDLER Boston Globe New observations reported Wednesday from the Hubble Space Telescope have confronted astronomers with a paradox that seems destined to topple fundamental theories of how the universe formed. According to the new Hubble findings, the beginning of the universe, in an explosion called the Big Bang, happened 8 billion to 12 billion years ago. But some stars, astronomers are quite sure, were born well before that, 14 billion to 18 billion years ago. Both estimates can't be true. Either the observations that produced the age calculations are way out of ics, also a member of the Hubble team, called the measurements reported Wednesday "the first big step in trying to determine the scale of the universe," a field he said "has been fraught with controversy for a long time." The universe, as astronomer Ed- the universe is expanding. And if you know how fast the universe is expanding and how far apart its galaxies are now, it is easy to figure just how long ago everything in the universe was at a single the Big Bang. point There's just one complication: The expansion rate has not been constant. The more matter there is in the universe, the more the pull of gravity has been slowing down the expansion. So to estimate the universe's age, astronomers must estimate how much matter there is the universe's density. According to the density figure win Hubble (for whom the telescope was named) discovered early this century, is expanding rapidly, with all its galaxies hurtling apart at speeds that increase as galaxies get farther apart. By knowing how far away a galaxy is and how fast it is hurtling away, astronomers can estimate how fast of how the universe developed needs to be drastically revised or even scrapped. "I think it's a real problem for the theorists," said Robert an astronomer at the Center for AKir-shne- i r, JJllA months on Harvard-S- known ages of the oldest stars, which astronomers believe has been determined with great accud theories racy based on about how long stars of various sizes live times that can be precisely computed based on atomic theory. Old stars observed in dense clusters that surround the Milky Way galaxy produce hav ages well-teste- Taking Your Savings To The Max ! purchases of $299 or more re somewhere between 14 billion and 18 billion years, astronomers believe. Even throwing out the inflation which theorists are reluctheory tant to do, because it fits very nicely with other key aspects of present doesn't solve the physics theory problem. Using the lowest possible estimate of the density of matter, based on direct observations, still makes the universe only 12 billion years old still younger than the oldest stars. Astronomers point out, however, that by using the most extreme estimates if the universe's dens- - al ity is as low as it could possibly be, and if true distance of Ml 00 is as far off as the Hubble team's estimates of the uncertainties of their measurement allow (they estimate plus or minus 20 percent), and if the age of the old stars is as low as then it is just it could possibly be the reconcile to two, at an possible age of about 14 billion years. As the Hubble project continues over the next three years, measuring the distances to 20 other galaxies, some of them much farther away, even this slight possibility of resolving the paradox may vanish, the astronomers say. ffi rn7iTninterest whack which seems unlikely or the most widely accepted theory required by the prevailing cosmo-logictheory, the inflation theory, if the distance to Ml 00 has been measured correctly then the universe is only about 8 billion years old. This conflicts directly with the : mithsonian strophysics, own whose observations using a completely different method, published last WEBB month, produce a similarly problematic estimate of the universe's age. If the results announced Wednesday are confirmed by HEWLETT PACKARD $699" $1 00 - nronnin ni .IN. flNF I 92274A e MnMITnR LD.rn a UUHlrUlcn nwi' me 4MB 16-b- it in A. upgradable to 64MB stereo card and A 1 $74.81 List Price $85 00 Dual CD-Ro- speed Less OfficeMax Everyday Low Price - Canon CANON COLOR BUBBLEJET PRINTER Up to 4 pages per minute 20 scalable TrueType fonts Standard 100 sheet feeder w Prints on a wide variety of media m 1404-825- List Price Model BJC 600 BLACK INIK CARTRIDGE $7.48 CANON 1405-116- 1 ty space. "Einstein had the answer in his hands when he first formulated general relativity," said Barry Madore, another member of the Hubble team. The possibility of a paradoxical difference in age estimates is not new. There have been widely varying estimates of the age of the universe over the yearstmany of which presented the same problem. But unlike the earlier claims, the new findings are considered so OfficeMax Everyday Low Price Final Priot? AfurFtobau ..L.V tjnmmi- www Three year Limited warranty Moaeiff nebdiiu scrapped and called his biggest blunder: a force similar to gravity but exerted by the vacuum of emp- 2 M SHARP WIZARD ORGANIZER DISKETTES PK. FUJI 3.5 HO 0fflcEwr.LwMctj 256K memory True word processing Database management ..UBliW 'fit AltW MW $10.11 TNI HMl MCi Price OfficeMax Eveiyday Low $719.00 OfficeMax Everyday Low Price 5 filing system Integrated $299" 0205-070-0 will On purchases of $299 or more with no down when you use an OfficeMax Personal Credit Card.fOffer valid for approved payment " purchases of Computers, Business Machines & Furniture related items only.) 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Wendy Freedman, an astronomer at the Carnegie Observatories in California and head scientist of the Hubble project to determine the size and age of the universe, Wednesday called the results a major milestone in the effort to complete this "key project" for the orbiting telescope, whose flawed vision vvas corrected by space shuttle astronauts last December. ' txotfier BUSH CPU DESK BROTHER CPU storage space Library oak finish 29 34'Hx5314Wx2917D Hutch sold separately Automatic document feeder Distinctive ringing capability Model 620 AT DRASTICALLY DISCOUNTED Desk List Hutch List List Price Available in OfficeMax medium point black, blue or red ink Ust Price J7.08 Everyday Low Price 250 (--''' rs The Hubble team made the measurement using a . 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BROTHER WHISPER WRITER INK JET WORD PROCESSOR graphics, spreadsheet and more Full size 14" super flat display 3 5" 720KB floppy disk drive for weeks, We'll match any locai competitor's advertised price on an identical item, or we'll cheerfully refund the difference if the item was D T) TJ '! Everyday Low Price & TO" OHiceMax serving how their brightness changes over a period of days or $1420 500 count List Price $299.95 those who seek to understand the history of the universe as a whole: Their true distance is easy to determine, simply by ob- List Price 1 irnl Urethane curved arms Deep contour seat and back Lumbar support to reduce fatigue Pneumatic lift Hqbble. ' Cepheids have a characteristic that makes them the darling of brother CHEST WALLACE MANAGER'S Everyday Low Price Letter or legal size copies stack feed 5 copies per minute Toner cartridge sold separately SENTRY SECURITY method that has been used for decades by astronomers to figure out the distances of much closer galaxies, by observing a type of star known as a Cepheid variable. To see Cepheids at such a great distance required the power of the Si" XEROX PERSONAL COPIER 27 $12 26 SWINGLIHE STAPLER List Price $224.00 OfftceMax ROLLS $12 2 Includes: stapler, staples and paper clips Black om-136- 2 98' PAPER-- $(99 1.30 AVERY INK Full suspension drawers with thumb latch Commercial grade construction Letter size Lifetime warranty BROTHER $799.95 COUNT List Price S1 FILEX 4 DRAWER STEEL FILE CABINET to a spiral galaxy called M100. The galaxy, the Hubble team said, is 56 million light-yeaaway (or 330 million trillion miles), give or take about 6 million light-year- s. $g99 BIC SOFT FEEL PENS $99.99 Price S1 79 95 0205-092- PRICES Price $279.95 99 y INTELLIFAX Anti-cu- Assembly required The findings, which appear Thursday in the journal Nature, provide the most accurate measurement ever made of the distance ' Cepheids pulsate as predictably as a heartbeat, and the faster they beat the brighter they are. So if you can measure the pulse rate, you can tell the star's true brightness, and by comparing that with its apin parent brightness the sky, calculate exactly how faraway it is. "This is the most distant galaxy in which Cepheids have ever been discovered," Freedman said, and their brightnesses were measured "more accurately than has ever been done before." The Hubble team was able to find 20 such stars in Ml 00. and observe th""-sp- PRINTER 4-- L 300 dpi 26 scalable typefaces Genuine enhanced PCL5 Resolution Enhancement technology Toner cartridge sold separately List would be a very exciting thing. " Stephen Maran, an astronomer with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, added that "it's often the discrepancies you find in science that lead to the most important discoveries." "Inflation," the prevailing version of the Big Bang theory, is the idea most threatened by the new findings. Some theorists think the only way to save it might be to bring back a concept that Albert , D LASERJET fur- ther Hubble observations, said John Huchra, a member of the Hubble team, "it might lead to a revolution in cosmology, which the first place. HEWLETT-PACKAR- Center at Riverdale; 1 080 W. 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