Posted on 04/13/2011 8:47:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
While astronomers are largely baffled by the question of how the universe began, they should probably hurry up and figure it out. In the far future, most of the evidence will be long gone, a new study suggests.
Though future astronomers will likely have the benefit of advanced technology and a more sophisticated understanding of physics, they won't be able to take advantage of the last vestiges of evidence left over from the Big Bang. The trace signals from the explosion that set the universe in motion 13.7 billion years ago will likely be all gone 1 trillion years from now, the researchers said. ..
However, researchers have identified some backup clues that our distant descendants (if humanity is still around) could use to trace the history of the universe.
A lucky time
Astronomers today can look at galaxies more than 13 billion years away that were formed only millions of years after the universe began. They can also study the so-called cosmic microwave background radiation a pervasive light in the cosmos that was created by the Big Bang and still lingers on.
However, in the distant future, these clues won't be visible to scientists on Earth or its near environs. The cosmic microwave background light will have faded away ..
And because the universe is expanding, the ancient galaxies that are now just within our field of view will be too far away to see from future Earth. ..
However, all hope for future celestial sleuths is not lost, because future astronomers might be able to study the Big Bang through so-called hypervelocity stars that have been flung out of the Milkomeda galaxy.
These stars will be the most distant light sources visible to astronomers in our galaxy in the year 1 trillion A.D. (C.E.).
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
The rubber of the balloon skin represents the entire knowable universe in all its multiple dimensions.
Imagine (if you will) a balloon made of very thick rubber. This rubber has been printed or doped with a special technique so that it has pictures of stars and galaxies within it.
When the balloon is blown up: imagine that not only the balloon expands, but the thick rubber skin expands ‘sideways’.
That’s the model. Space expanding in all directions and everything IN space - the stars and galaxies - getting further apart.
But don’t think about the space inside the balloon. That isn’t part of the analogy anymore than the air-pump blowing up the balloon is.
Hope this is helpful.
A trillion years, huh? Umm, I give a shit how? =.=
I can hardly wait!
The big bang is God spoke and BANG, the Universe came into being.
Yes, but the Bible does not provide nor preclude implementation details.
Thanks.
Ping me when it happens, I’ll probably be napping........
I'm not a professional cosmologist, but - as I understand it - we don't care if there is any material "farther" from the imaginary inflating shell, or closer to the "center" (whatever those words mean - we must understand that time and space were created in the Big Bang[1].) Bake a loaf of bread with raisins. As the dough rises, all raisins move away from each other; but any two raisins don't care what other raisins are doing - they aren't affected by that. Similarly, dots on a balloon don't care if there are larger balloons outside or smaller balloons inside.
How would that necessarily be so? If light emitting objects existed further than 13 billion light years away yet have existed longer than 13 b. years then the light could be reaching us now. Say; an object 20 b. light years away that has existed for 30 b. years. No?
Yes, with one little catch - the age of Universe is about 13 billion years. So if there is an object 20 billion light years away it can exist only for 13 billion years (even if we assume that it got there instantly[2]) and therefore we have to wait another 7 billion years until the light from it reaches us.
In other words, there is no object in this Universe that is older than the Universe itself, and as result we can't see past the point of birth of the Universe.
Now heat the barrel until bubbles of steam are released. Now you have the boundary, and as long as those bubbles last long enough you just created a bunch of Universes for little 2D civilizations of water spiders to sprout, eventually. And if you rework the whole model one dimension higher you can see how our 3D Universe could "condensate" out of space with higher dimensions.
But take a large sheet of plywood and drop it onto the surface, flat. It will make contact at every point of its surface at the same time - instantly. The water spider's physics would be shattered - he just observed an instantaneous action without any propagation! But that is possible only because the interference came from another dimension (from above the water.) One theory of BB suggests that BB could be a spark, a collision point between objects of higher dimensions.
Yes, I get the balloon analogy but the question isn't whether the raisins care about what's going on in the center. The question is; there is a center isn't there?
Yes, with one little catch - the age of Universe is about 13 billion years. So if there is an object 20 billion light years away it can exist only for 13 billion years ...
Assuming it is a part of the universe created by the BB. Which I didn't.
In other words, there is no object in this Universe that is older than the Universe itself, and as result we can't see past the point of birth of the Universe.
Unless the light of something much older than this universe was passing through this universe.
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