Hi All

M33 has produced an eclipsing binary bright enough for direct observation of its parameters. Analysis suggests that the integrated luminosity is higher than we first thought...

SpaceRef News Bite

...and the abstract online at arxiv.org...

Astro-Phys 0606279

...with the original news bite at Ohio State U...

Universe Gets Bigger

...the paper isn't the first to find a larger distance to M33 than the Hubble's Cepheid survey determined. If the results are correct then Ho drops to just 61 km/s/Mpc, which means the Big Bang was at 15.95 Gya, not the current WMAP quoted 13.7 Gya.

Trick is the Universe may not be filled with Dark Energy either. The Cosmological Constant's 'evidence' is from a 'kink' in theoretically-derived observed distances to type SN Ia supernovae. Change Ho and the magnitude of SN Ia's changes too. Also there might be a lot more electrons in the intergalactic medium than first thought, causing Thompson scattering of the supernovae's spectral signatures - thus creating a spurious kink in the distance data.

Is Expansion Accelerating?

...so does the cosmological constant exist? If it doesn't then just how old is the cosmos? If it's flat then it'll be about ~ 11 - 12 Gyr old. A lower density than q = 0.5 means an older cosmos, but only time will tell.

Adam