The Universe is shopping at the Big and Tall store

The Universe has tripled in size…… or at least our measurement of it.

The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) is proving to scientists that the actual size of the universe is much greater than previously calculated and with much greater precision. The VLBA consist of 10, 25 meter diameter radio antennas that stretch from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands. The array acts together as a single large dish instead of ten separate units. This basically allows the system to observe in a stereo manner, instead of only seeing the image from one angle it has the ability to look at it from ten different angles that are spread out over 8,600 kilometers. The array can fine tune images several hundred times more detailed than the Hubble Space Telescope. It is able to distinguish minute movements and wobbles of galaxies and stars. The array has recently gone through an upgrade which has allowed it to increase its performance by 5,000 times.

The radio telescope array has detected a galaxy, NGC 6264, at a distance of 450 million light years, with an error of nine percent. This is three times farther than the previous record holder at 160 million light years. Greater measurements with greater precision will allow scientists to study universal expansion rate and the press forward the hunt for dark energy, which is estimated to be 70% of the universes. The array has also been working on the Milky Way, and has shown that our galaxy has four spiral arms instead of the previously supposed two. While being used to do so it has detected many new star birthing areas, doubling what was previously thought. The Milky Way is now considered to be much larger, containing many more stars and the environs. So large in fact that it is considered to be on par with the Andromeda galaxy which it will be targeting next.