Spark Spot

Astronemers have found that many new galaxies are luminous and they must relatively new. Some 15 galaxies in the sample exhibit luminosities that indicate that they are massive systems like the Milky Way and other so-called “giant” galaxies.

The chemical abundances of the galaxies, combined with some simple assumptions about how stellar evolution and chemical enrichment progress in galaxies in general, suggest that they may only be 3 or 4 billion years old, and therefore formed 9 to 10 billion years after the Big Bang. Most theories of galaxy formation predict that massive, luminous systems like these should have formed much earlier.

If this overall interpretation proves correct, the galaxies may allow astronomers to investigate phases of the galaxy formation and evolution process that have been difficult to study because they normally occur at such early times in the Universe, and therefore at very large distances from us.

The discoveries are the result of a multi-year survey of more than 2,400 star-forming galaxies. The survey was designed to collect basic observational data for a large number of extragalactic emission-line sources. Additional rounds of follow-up spectroscopy for the sources discovered in the initial survey led to the discovery of the 15 luminous, low-abundance systems.

While the hypothesis that these galaxies are cosmologically young is provocative, it is not the only possible explanation for these enigmatic systems.

Google, one of the most popular search engines,  rolled out two enhancements to its search engine that drives for a shift toward more integrated real-time search results. The new technology introduces new algorithms that draw from semantic relevance of search terms.

The first enhancement expands the list of useful related searches. The second enhancement lengthens search result descriptions, called “snippets“. Both new offerings are designed to help guide users more effectively to the information they need.

Till now, Google could not help users whose keyword selections were too broad, yielding them poor results as their search words were not optimized.The new technology tries to interpret the search terms. Making the snippets longer will help people find more quickly the information they are looking.

The new technology is based on algorithms Allon developed before coming to Google in 2006. Instead of using search histories that Google tracks, this new approach is strictly algorithm based and is automated and scalable. The new features, which are based on proprietary software, support 37 languages.

The new method allows Google to quickly search in real time after considering the semantic significance of the search terms users enter. The algorithms apply associations and concepts related to the search terms.The technology analyzes Web page content related to the query and determines the relevance of people, places or concepts to the query. The process only needs fractions of seconds.