Have there been studies to compare structures that are 26 billion light years distant (i.e. from one side of the observable universe to the other) to search for faint differences?
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Source of oldest info on isotropy is CMB https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/475/what-is-the-mass-of-hotspots-in-the-cosmic-microwave-background-radiation?rq=1 – Mithoron Aug 14 '18 at 22:10
1 Answers
The most distant objects which can be seen with telescopes are around 13.39 ly away, with a redshift $z=11$. Telescopes see a roughly uniform Universe, although some very large structures were already identified.
The Cosmical Microwave Background has a $z \approx 1000$.
It was measured for its possible minor anisotropies by the COBE, and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck satellites.
It measured the temperature of the 2.7K Cosmical Microwave Background with $\approx 10^{-5} K$ precision. The technology was not easy.
There were two results:
First, there is a global dipole anisotropy showing that we are moving with $\approx 368 \frac{km}{s}$ to the Hercules constellation. It is the nearest thing what could be seen, as if we had found an absolute reference frame.
Second, substracting this from the results, another, lesser anisotropy were found:
The distribution of the anisotropy, combined with the result of other experiments, helped to get
- the most precise measurement of the age of the Universe (13.7 Gy).
- the most precise measurement of the curvature of the Universe (0, below measurement precision).
- that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.
Also the polarity was measured, which has shown that the re-inozation happened earlier as it was previously believed.
This is the best result what we have until now.
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1The global dipole anisotropy isn't a surprising result. It is an expected result. CMB anisotropies were identified by COBE - much earlier than WMAP. – ProfRob Aug 15 '18 at 12:49
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Also, WMAP is not really the best results we have, as it has been succeeded by Planck. – pela Aug 15 '18 at 19:02
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Also, the dipole is much larger than the 160 km/s; on average it's 370 km/s. – pela Aug 16 '18 at 06:36
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Then while you're at it: You write that the CMB is measured with 1e-4 K, but later you write "tenths of Kelvins". Both are actually too high, as the CMB is measured with less than 1e-5 K precision. :) – pela Aug 16 '18 at 10:38
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