Fascinating news about our universe that boggles the imagination: Results from a NASA satellite program measuring the cosmic afterglow of the big bang suggest that in a trillionth of a second(!), the universe expanded from the size of a marble to billions of light-years in extent.
Try to wrap your mind around that concept.
The research “is telling us that the universe is vastly bigger than we ever imagined — so big that we no longer have any reason to believe that our tiny patch of it is representative of the whole thing,” Stanford University physicist Leonard Susskind told USA Today.
“We, and all we can see, are at most a tiny dot in an unimaginably large sea of space and time,” Susskind said.
Stunning evidence of a universe that is wondrous beyond our imagining.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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73 Comments
Part of the fascination is the newly discovered fact that the universe is not slowing down, but expanding at an accelerating rate. This blew astronomers theories out of the water. They had expected to find the universe slowing down and collapsing on itself. It ain’t happening.
What this means is as the universe expands outward, more and more space will develope between galaxies, down to the star level. When that happens, the universe will lose heat, and die. We’re talking billions and billions of years in the future, but that seems to ge the fate awaiting it.
There is still the matter of calculation of dark matter.
And of course, these are mostly concerns of the far future. Perhaps as the universe expands we will also expand.
But for now it is even more evidence that we shold study and explore…..while we can still reach.
Kinda gives a whole new meaning to Einstein’s concept of local time, doesn’t it? Though I guess time is ultimately just entropy.
I suspect Brian Greene is having champagne tonight, ya think?
I’m not familiar with Greene.
As I understand spacetime, as space expands time will slow down.
I think that’s right. As space expands, the atoms have to. . oh, crap, it’s 1:00 in the morn, and I am NOT a physicist! :) Too heady right now.
Might wanta check on that. Walker, you know?
Brian Greene is the physicist who is credited with proposing the inflationary universe, the very extreme early expansion that, apparently, been experimentally verified.
And how would we know or even contemplate these things without science?
kfg,How would we know or contemplate these things without intelligence, BFG1 aside?
More of the wonder of God’s creation revealed!
And we (humans) are the only intelligent life in the whole universe and earth is the only planet with lifeforms on it.yeah. right.Things that make ya go hmmmm…
This “theory” of an accelerating universe belong in the Enquirer.
They come-up with this junk science to get paid, and the weirder it is, the more money and fame I’ll bring.
“Cold-fusion” was cool, but “the never to be outdone Walker” takes the cake with his “the universe will lose its heat and die theory”
Actually that can happen if somebody doesn’t pay the universe’s gas-bill, the gas company which supplies heat for the universe will cut-off the gas, and there goes the heat.
I also like ” in a trillionth of a second(!), the universe expanded from the size of a marble to billions of light-years in extent” { Of course the common denominator is missing, but who needs to be picky, picky, picky }.
Don’t buy any more “watches” from that store where you bought your last one{ they jump time }.
They nice part about junk science is that the checks cash OK and nobody can prove you’re wrong, and as long as the money is there, we’ll keep getting new theories.
Actually, Ian, the expanding universe theory has been proven to a certain extent. Einstein’s theories confirm this, only in a way he didn’t picture. It would also quantify the ancient Greeks, who started the whole thing.The article can be read here: http://www.astronomytoday.com/cosmology/quintessence.html
If it does prove in the long run to be true, then the universe will expand to a point where it will cool, ending all life as we know it. That would be a fact.
But it’s probably all just a zionist plot:-)
An even more up to date article on the expanding universe, one which more astronomers are putting stock in:http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101accel.html
Ed,Perhaps you should by a watch that actually works. It appears your’s is stuck in the past.
Oh, damn, did I call Ed Ian? I apologize: all racists look alike to me.
Ed is not a “racist”! He is an arch anti-zionist who makes the distinction between good jews and bad jews!
Cheers and peace to all of God’s creatures.
Why don’t you buy a brain that works, you stupid bastard.
Ed, you shouldn’t talk to Ian that way.
Thank You for the understanding, Ian. If Walker wasn’t so stupid, he’d understand what you’re talking about.
As long as gravity remains a constant it will continue to draw matter together into a black holes, thus reconstituting heat.
There is no indication gravity has changed { with the exception from within the mind of our next junk scientist }.
Then the black holes will be drawn together collapsing the universe into another singularity.
Each visible galaxy is rotating around a black hole and will eventually form other black holes {to be drawn together } as the universe condenses.
Extreme heat is stored in gravity compressed matter.
Okay, Ed, a little explanation is in order from “stupid”:
“Very recently it has become practical for astronomers to observe very bright rare stars called supernova in an effort to measure how much the universal expansion has slowed over the last few billion years. Surprisingly, the results of these observations indicate that the universal expansion is speeding up, or accelerating! While these results should be considered preliminary, they raise the possibility that the universe contains a bizarre form of matter or energy that is, in effect, gravitationally repulsive.”
What does that do to your “gravitational constant”? Kind of throws it in another dimension, doesn’t it. Of course, it’s all junk science to you since it conflicts with what you last read in fantsay and science fiction magazine.
I am well aware of the fact you have a closed mind to politics, but I had no idea it also included real science. Are you a closet Ludite?
Respectfully yours,”stupid” (sometimes being called a name by someone else is in reality a compliment . . . thanks for the compliment)
I still think Ian and Ed are the same person, one with mutiple personality disorder.”Cheers and peace to all of God’s creatures”, does that include people of all races, Ian?
You are right on JM, sad to think someday all this beauty and wonder will no longer exist. I believe this is our time in eternity, so I plan to make it as much fun as possible while I have the chance.
Nonsense
Good answer, Ed, good answer! “And the survey said . . . -0-!”
Too bad we won’t live long enough to find out who’s right, Ed.
Fuzzy math works wonders on junk theories.
Einstein said that anti-gravity was his greatest mistake { You gotta take the good with the bad }.
The Hubble stared at a spot where there was nothing for 30 days. That “nothing spot” had over 1500 galaxies when the film developed.
Zionists are all cut from the same jib.
Walker you try to insult your way into your desperate quest to be right. Stick with things you know about, there you have better odds.
It has always struck me that building a universe is a clumsey way to bring about life.
Well, Ed, since you don’t qualify as life, you have nothing to worry about then, do you.
But to correct you, Einstein never said anti-gravity was his biggest mistake: He said The Cosmological Constant was his biggest mistake. The Cosmological Constant is more of a thought than a reality. It, according to Einstein, can be positive, negative or neutral. It is also a theory he abandoned a few years after he developed it when Hubble discovered the red shift.
The interesting fact that has surfaced because of the recent experiments and observations of supernovas, and the red shift effect showing the universe expanding at an increased rate,is Einstein’s Cosmological Constant may have been correct after all.
Einstein’s so-called work on anti-gravity was just one component of his unified field theory. One that blossomed out of the torsion theory, and is the subject of the mythical Philidelphia experiment.
I am including another link to more info, since you apparantly have not read the others:http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/Einstein-Antigravity.pdf
You see, Ed, I do know what I am talking about because I am very interested in the subject, from my childhood days, and keep up on developements.
You, on the other hand, do nothing but call me stupid. Quite a comment in itself on your knowledge.
Actually, fuzzy math is a reality, expressed as mathmatical equations and predictable. So much so that it is used in process control as fuzzy logic. It’s what the human hand does automatically when it balances a broomstick straight up. It is constantly adjusting the hand to balance the stick, anticipating the next move. Nothing random about it, and hardly fuzzy, but the name stuck.
It has been a boon to process control where the process must be held in tight, as in heating applications. I use it on extruder processes all the time. Interesting you brought it up.
So it is indeed used in science and is a valuable tool. But to denigrate it as a tool of junk science is disengenuous.
What a true delight this thread is! I had no idea of the interest in science among some of our posters.
Perhaps the WE blog should toss us a science issue now and again.
J M you seem very versed and interested as to this. I am less versed,but still interested.
And even if he is coming across as something of anti science Ludddite, Ed is at least showing an interest beyond his usual.
Until we have an acceptable unified field theory, I don’t think questions as to expansion can be definitively answered. String theory is very young as is quantum mechanics.
Truly an interesting time to be alive.
If something goes faster than the speed of light, then it would move backwards in time, right? So somewhere in the outer edges of the universe, I’m being born again. Sweet.
Nope, I have no knowledge of astronomy nor physics. I’m not smoking any funny cigarettes, either. But it’s fun to fantasize about this stuff.
I tried to read the wikipedia article on string theory…no luck. I understand Greek better than that stuff.
Remember Carl Sagan? His manner of explaining the cosmos always struck me as coming from someone who knew his subject inside out, but was slightly “off” in his delivery. Turns out he was high on pot most of the time. What a trip!
JR,Ya, I’ll give Ed credit for sticking to his guns, whatever they are, but I have a feeling he’s doing it in a vain attempt to piss me off.
Tara, As soon as you go faster than the speed of light and time having slowed, that motorcycle cop that’s chasing you will catch you, but on the upside, it will take him forever to write the ticket, as time will be moving so slowly. Meanwhile you can jump backwards in time to before it happened { he can’t give you a ticket for something which hasn’t happen yet….right?
Quit trying to balance the broomstick and get back to work.
And my interest in science is born of Carl Sagan!
Where does this come from this idea that he was smoking pot?
How many affirmative action incompetents would it take to change a light bulb in a parallel universe?
Cheers and peace to all of God’s creatures
JR,His wife let the cat out of the bag when he passed away. I have no idea why, other than he might have requested she do so after his death. It was never made a big deal out of. Just think: some high brow very intelligent scientist who the whole world knows, smokes pot? Bad for the country to dwell on, don’t you think? I LMAO when I heard it.
Affirmative action incompetents? That’s rather random, isn’t it? Is there a reason affirmative action is on your mind tonight, Ian, or is that what your hate filled brain randomly burped up at this particular moment?
Tara,
It was a joke, lighten up. I guess Crux got me thinking about aa with his performance here the past couple of days so blame him! I don’t hate.
V.L.R.B!!
Ah, another jab at Crux, I see. While I (reluctantly) laughed at your comment, you still turn my stomach sometimes :)
I’d never heard that C M. I will look into it. Not doubting you, just curious.
We lost Carl Sagan too young. If smoking weed helped him make science understandable to the masses I’d say it argues for relaxing rregulation as to marijuana.
The more we know about the universe, the more wondrous the creation and the Creator.
I’ll ask a question, ’cause I’m not an astrophysicist. Obviously, many of you are better versed on this than I.
What does this “accelerating universe” etc. say about the speed of light being a constant? And if it is not a constant, what effect does that have on the various time measurements we use – time here on the millions/billions years scale?
GMC70,The speed of light is a constant. It is the one constant that makes things like the red shift quantifyable. With it, we can gage the age of the universe, how far other suns are from us, etc. It is the basis of measuring time.But time itself is am interesting study. Part of the string theory holds that space is like a fabric, stretchable by gravity and other as yet only guessed at forces. As such, it can be used to “cheat” the light speed constant via worm holes, or gravity wells, if you will, and allow space travel to other solar systems to be completed in less than a lifetime.
Right now, that makes for interesting science fiction, but remember some of Jules Verne’s fiction is now fact.
I would suggest looking back at my earlier posts in this blog and reading the links I refer to.
The expanding and accelerating universe has more to say about the density of matter in the universe or the existence of an unknown “repulsive” force for matter than anything else.
If gravitation is the long range force for matter, then if there is enough matter, gravity will slow it down and cause it to begin to contract (since gravity is an attractive force). On the other hand, if there isn’t enough matter around, gravity can’t act to make it collapse in.
There is also the proposition that the universe is expanding because there is an as yet “undiscovered” force for matter that causes it to repel at long distances. This is an active area of research. If this force is found, it would be one of the major discoveries of physics.
It would say that over time, the stars and every other celestial body would disappear from our view. We would truly be alone in the universe then since no signal we could send could outpace the expansion. The universe would simply become a big, cold, empty, place with little lumps of matter very few and far between. Rather a sobering thought.
And things move faster than the speed of light all the time. Einstein’s theory put a limit on the group velocity of light..that speed at which information can be transmitted. It did not put a limit on the speed of light in general.
My bad, it’s the group velocity that can travel faster than the speed of light. Lots of experimemts (with lasers) for exmple, have resulted in group velocities faster than c.
“Group velocity?” what is that? Are you saying the SOL is not the “universal speed limit” it is proclaimed to be?
And – bear with me JM – why are we so certain that the SOL is the constant it is proclaimed to be?
Brian,Excellent post, and very intriguing. From what I understand about the nature of light, its speed is the one constant we can rely on. Light can be bent, blocked, and even slowed under some circumstances, but its uninhibited speed is constant. If it turns out the speed of light is variable, it will throw the whole field of physics on its head.
The experiments that allowed FTL trnasmission were done using a gas, boron, I think. That’s way over my head.
The site, http://www.aip.org/pnu/ has a subscribe feature which will send weekly updates via email. Very interesting stuff going on.
Brian, do you have a link for the “things move faster than the speed of light” because I remember in physics class, our professor showing us mathematically that it’s impossible to accelerate and object to the speed of light, because it would take infinite energy.
It looks to me that if this theory is correct, that God broke the laws of physics in the “singularity” of the Big Bang, proving that if there is a God, He is not bound by physical laws, just as the medieval thinkers believed . . .
As an object approaches the speed of light, the more dense it becomes. The more dense the object becomes, the more power required to propel it. As PL says, to exceed the speed of light would require infinite enery. Not going to happen under our current understanding of physical law. Better to persue bending time/space (wormhole).
XXX,Here are some links to sites with differing views on the recent FTL experiments. Did it relly happen and is it quantifiable? As I said, it’s over my head, but interesting nontheless.
http://www.metaresearch.org/home/viewpoint/archive/010824FTL/Meta-in-News%20010824.asp
http://www.aei.mpg.de/~mpoessel/Physik/FTL/tunnelingftl.html
http://www.iitk.ac.in/infocell/Archive/dirjuly3/science_light.html
I went to my uncle’s house for dinner and I was so late, they’d already pushed-back from the table having finished eating. So, I got-up and went to the bathroom so fast that went I got back, they hadn’t started eating yet.
And XXX, you’re right. There was twice as much there to eat, when I sat-back down, as there was when I left.
Now, that’s faster than the speed of light:-}
I put the extra food into Walker’s fridg.
ProudLib,
Your professor didn’t lie to you. There are many “speeds” of light that one can talk about. The two most important are the “phase velocity” of light and the “group velocity”. The distinction is extremely important.
Imagine light passing through a material with a refractive index, n. The refractive index is the speed of light in a vacuum dividied by the speed in the medium, c/v. Usually, the refractive index depends on frequency and we end up with the velocity of light in the medium depending on the frequency of the “naked” light coming from the vacuum. So, the speed of light in the material can be the same, faster, or slower, than the speed of light in the vacuum. This has been known for a long time, but the math is rather complex.
For example, it is possible to design experiments where the group velocity of laser light pulses sent through specially prepared materials significantly exceeds the speed of light in vacuum (though superluminal communication is not possible, since the signal velocity remains less than the speed of light). It is also possible to reduce the group velocity to zero, stopping the pulse.
Boy, Wait til they get their electric bill.
Check out…
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath210/kmath210.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
I tried to explain to the Bank that I’d already made the deposit tomorrow.
Ed, :-))..They explained they’d spent it the day before ???
Thanks, Ed, I was gettin’ hungry.
Great post, Brian. Thanks for the info. As I said, the superluminal phenomenum is a bit beyond me.
I did read, though, where they are trying to figure out how to make the photon itself the communication media, hence making FTL comm possible. I don’t doubt that anything is possible as we learn more about the nature of the universe.
Will there ever be a real unified field theory,or is the universe such a chaotic assemblege of matter/gravity/light that it would be a constant changing theory?
That’s what they said Brian, and I told them it was the same old story they told me the day after tomorrow.
The trouble is that I don’t know when to take the Christmas Tree down?
Okay, thanks, Brian.
I had heard about light slowing down in some mediums but I hadn’t heard of it speeding up.
That’s a new one to me.
PL, slowing light down? We’ve figured out how to stop light and then restart it.
This is a huge development in computing once they start to apply it. Blows the nanometer gate problem away.
Ahh, but even the use of light in computing will be overshadowed by quantum computing, but that’s a whole nuther story, right XXX?, Although slowing light could be used in quantum computing:http://www.msnbc.com/news/242698.aspFor msnbc, a well written article.
I’ve only skimmed this thread-always a dangerous things to do– so I apologize if you’ve since qualified this statement, Ed, however, earlier on you said:
“‘Cold-fusion’ was cool, but ‘the never to be outdone Walker’ takes the cake with his ‘the universe will lose its heat and die theory’”
“Actually that can happen if somebody doesn’t pay the universe’s gas-bill, the gas company which supplies heat for the universe will cut-off the gas, and there goes the heat.”
My jaw dropped. I guess you’ve spent so much time fighting for justice in the Middle East that you haven’t had time for much else.
It’s called the “second law of thermodynamics,” Sir Dude. It dates back to Rudolf Clausius in the 19th century:
http://www.sullivan-county.com/id3/thermodynamics.htm
And the accelation of the universe isn’t exactly part of the some new “junk science.” It was discovered by Edwin Hubble in 1929.
I think you and Walker could learn from each other, in different ways, if you just put down the truncheons for a bit. Oh well.
Rage, When you try to apply the second law of thermodynamics to the universe you’re comparing apples and oranges. That does apply to the internal combustion engine.
Nothing can be added or taken away from the universe and as long as gravity and mass are present the universe cannot lose heat.{ E=MC2 }
When we look at distant galaxies we’re also looking back in time { much closer to the big bang }.
But notice galaxies had already begun to form, spinning around black holes, so gravity was operational.
The problem I have with “questionable science” are the grants { cold science being “cool” was a pun, the experiment failed }.
Nobody is immune to money or glory.
It is possible that there is a mass of gravity far distant from our known universe, but that would also pull everything back into a singularity.
My money is on that’s not what’s happening, after factoring in everything else.
Hubble got what he wanted.
Ed,In all seriousness, where would this “mass of gravity” come from, if not from this universe? Are you suggesting alternate dimensions, as propossed by the string theory? That is the only place a mass of gravity, as you call, it could come from. Because if it is a part of this universe, however distant, than it would throw the big bang theory out the window.
As the universe expands, as proven by the red shift, it means that more and more the universe is endless. It has no boundries. It stretches to infinity. That’s such a mind boggling thought, that the only explanation is a higher power.
Whether or not there is some “mass gravity” or that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate sure means that it is indeed an interesting time we live in, as JR said.
I also believe there are probably billions of planets with some form of life on them. I hardly think this higher power would create this for only earth beings. Damn, I’ld like to be around to meet a few.
Walker, I’m not saying such a mass exists, just that there are many more things out, which we are unaware than aware.
Ditto about being there to meet-up with whatever is “out-there.”
Walker, Go to a muffler shop and watch a white-hot drip of molten medal hit the ground. Notice the splatter pattern. Sure looks like what the big-Bank might have looked like.
Ed, I’ve worked in foundries before, so, ya, I agree. I a;lso agree there are some things we may never know about he universe, but it’s kind of exciting to read all the various theories and conjectures. Keeps one on his toes.
True
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