Astronomers crunch numbers, Universe gets bigger (Forwarded)

Research Communications
Ohio State University

Contact:
Krzysztof Stanek, (614) 292-3433

Written by:
Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475

8/3/06

ASTRONOMERS CRUNCH NUMBERS, UNIVERSE GETS BIGGER

COLUMBUS , Ohio -- That intergalactic road trip to Triangulum is going to
take a little longer than you had planned.

An Ohio State University astronomer and his colleagues have determined that
the Triangulum Galaxy, otherwise known as M33, is actually about 15 percent
farther away from our galaxy than previously measured.

This finding implies that the Hubble constant, a number that astronomers
rely on to calculate a host of factors -- including the size and age of the
universe -- could be significantly off the mark as well.

That means that the universe could be 15 percent bigger and 15 percent older
than any previous calculations suggested.

The astronomers came to this conclusion after they invented a new method for
calculating intergalactic distances, one that is more precise and much
simpler than standard methods. Kris Stanek, associate professor of astronomy
at Ohio State, and his coauthors describe the method in a paper to appear in
the Astrophysical Journal (astro-ph/0606279).

In 1929, Edwin Hubble formulated the cosmological distance law that
determines the Hubble constant. Scientists have disagreed about the exact
value of the constant over the years, but the current value has been
accepted since the 1950s. Astronomers have discovered other cosmological
parameters since then, but the Hubble constant and its associated methods
for calculating distance haven't changed.

"The Hubble constant used to be the one parameter that we knew pretty well,
and now it's lagging behind. Now we know some things quite a bit better than
we know the Hubble constant," Stanek said. "Ten years ago, we didn't even
know that dark energy existed. Now we know how much dark energy there is --
better than we know the Hubble constant, which has been around for almost 80
years."

To their surprise, the distance to two stars in M33 was 15 percent farther
than they expected. If this new distance measurement is correct, then the
true value of the Hubble constant may be 15 percent smaller -- and the
universe may be 15 percent bigger and older -- than previously thought.

Still, Stanek said he and his colleagues didn't start this work in order to
change the value of the Hubble constant. They just wanted to find a simpler
way to calculate distances.

To calculate the distance to a faraway galaxy using the Hubble constant,
astronomers have to work through several complex steps of related equations,
and incorporate distances to closer objects, such as the Large Magellanic
Cloud.

"In every step you accumulate errors," Stanek said. "We wanted an
independent measure of distance -- a single step that will one day help with
measuring dark energy and other things."

The new method took 10 years to develop. They studied M33 in optical and
infrared wavelengths, checking and re-checking measurements that are
normally taken for granted. They used telescopes of all sizes, from fairly
small 1-meter telescopes to the largest in the world -- the 10-meter
telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii .

"Technologically, we had to be on the cutting edge to make this work, but
the basic idea is very simple," he said.

They studied two of the brightest stars in M33, which are part of a binary
system, meaning that the stars orbit each other. As seen from Earth, one
star eclipses the other every five days.

They measured the mass of the stars, which told them how bright those stars
would appear if they were nearby. But the stars actually appear dimmer
because they are far away. The difference between the intrinsic brightness
and the apparent brightness told them how far away the stars were -- in a
single calculation.

To their surprise, the distance was 15 percent farther than they expected:
about 3 million light-years away, instead of 2.6 million light-years as
determined by the Hubble constant.

If this new distance measurement is correct, then the true value of the
Hubble constant may be 15 percent smaller -- and the universe may be 15
percent bigger and older -- than previously thought.

"Our margin of error is now 6 percent, which is actually pretty good,"
Stanek said. Next, they may do the same calculation for another star system
in M33, to reduce their error further, or they may look at the nearby
Andromeda galaxy. The kind of binary systems they are looking for are
relatively rare, he said, and getting all the necessary measurements to
repeat the calculation would probably take at least another two years.

Stanek's coauthors on the paper include Alceste Bonanos of the Carnegie
Institute of Washington, Rolf-Peter Kudritzki of the University of Hawaii,
and Lucas Macri of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, as well as
astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Copernicus
Astronomical Center in Poland, the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in
Canada, Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom, and the
Astronomical Institute of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.

This work was funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation.