Success for galaxy quest

An Australian-led research team which was refused use of an American
telescope has discovered a string of galaxies, challenging existing theories
about how the universe evolved.

The team used telescopes in Chile and at the Siding Spring Observatory in
western NSW to detect an enormous string of galaxies about 10.8 billion
light-years away.

Australian National University astronomer Paul Francis, who led the research
team, said existing scientific theories cannot explain how the galaxy string
could have existed 10.8 billion years ago.

"We have detected 37 galaxies and one quasar in the string, but it probably
contains many thousands of galaxies," Dr Francis said in a statement.

"The existence of this galaxy string will send astrophysicists around the
world back to the drawing board to re-examine theories of the formation of
the universe."

Dr Francis' team was refused the use of a telescope in the United States
because the observations they wanted to carry out were considered to be
technically impossible by many American astronomers.

The team have since presented their findings to the American Astronomical
Society.

Dr Francis said computer simulations of the early universe had been unable
to reproduce galaxy strings as large as the one his team found.

"There simply hasn't been enough time since the Big Bang for it to form
structures this colossal," he said.

The team believes the string probably contains thousands of galaxies, and
work is now under way to map it.

The string of galaxies itself is thought to be 300 million light years long.
A light year is about 9.5 trillion kilometres.

During a perfect moment of peace at Fri, 9 Jan 2004 01:03:48 +1100,
"Whisper" interrupted with:

The string of galaxies itself is thought to be 300 million light years long.
A light year is about 9.5 trillion kilometres.

Now that is an interesting article. More details can be had at
http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~pfrancis/www/string/

Purely supposition, but is this evidence of a cosmological string
perhaps?
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Bring me my Broadsword and clear understanding.