13 more things that don’t make sense

September 7th, 2009 Comments Off on 13 more things that don’t make sense

clipped from www.newscientist.com

13 more things that don’t make sense


13 THINGS SENT TO TRY US



Strive as we might to make sense of the world, there are mysteries that still confound us.

Michael Brooks presents thirteen of the most perplexing. Cracking any one of them could yield profound truths.





Axis of evil




(Image: WMAP / NASA)

Radiation left from the big bang is still glowing in the sky – in a mysterious and controversial pattern





Dark flow




The galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, 3.8 billion light-years away, is one of hundreds that appear to be carried along by a mysterious cosmic flow (Image: NASA / STScI / Magellan / U.Arizona / D.Clowe et al)

Something unseeable and far bigger than anything in the known universe is hauling a group of galaxies towards it at inexplicable speed





Eocene hothouse




Tens of millions of years ago, the average temperature at the poles was 15 or 20 °C (Image: judywhite / Rex Features)

Tens of millions of years ago, the average temperature at the poles was 15 or 20 °C. Now let’s talk about climate change





Fly-by anomalies




Artist's rendition of the Rosetta probe's closest approach to Earth, during its second fly-by on 13 November this year (Image: ESA - C. Carreau)

Space probes using Earth’s gravity to get a slingshot speed boost are moving faster than they should. Call in dark matter





Hybrid life




These sea squirts were created when two evolutionary lineages fused (Image: Gary Bell / Taxi / Getty)

The fusion of two distinct evolutionary lines is not supposed to work – but the seas are teeming with chimeras that prove it can


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