Unexpected aspects of the early universe
Recently a survey (the “Gemini Deep Deep Survey”:http://www.gemini.edu/gdds/) was made with the 8-meter Hawaii telescope of the Gemini Observatory, of a period 3–6 billion years after the Big Bang, and discovered many large galaxies up to 3 billion years old. The results were reported at this week’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society, and are surprising as that leaves very little time in the early history of the universe for such large-scale galaxial formations to come into being. Another mystery is that the survey shows a large amount of heavier atoms, and you know what that means… curiouser and curiouser.
In addition, “a large-scale structure was observed”:http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0107filament.html, spread across 300 million light years, at a redshift of close to 2.38. According to standard models, such a structure should not have arisen so quickly.