Posted on 12/18/2010 4:14:00 PM PST by LibWhacker
The signatures of a bubble collision: A collision (top left) induces a temperature modulation in the CMB temperature map (top right). The “blob” associated with the collision is identified by a large needlet response (bottom left), and the presence of an edge is determined by a large response from the edge detection algorithm (bottom right). Image credit: Feeney, et al.
(PhysOrg.com) -- By looking far out into space and observing what’s going on there, scientists have been led to theorize that it all started with a Big Bang, immediately followed by a brief period of super-accelerated expansion called inflation. Perhaps this was the beginning of everything, but lately a few scientists have been wondering if something could have come before that, setting up the initial conditions for the birth of our universe.
In the most recent study on pre-Big Bang science posted at arXiv.org, a team of researchers from the UK, Canada, and the US, Stephen M. Feeney, et al, have revealed that they have discovered four statistically unlikely circular patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The researchers think that these marks could be “bruises” that our universe has incurred from being bumped four times by other universes. If they turn out to be correct, it would be the first evidence that universes other than ours do exist.
The idea that there are many other universes out there is not new, as scientists have previously suggested that we live in a “multiverse” consisting of an infinite number of universes. The multiverse concept stems from the idea of eternal inflation, in which the inflationary period that our universe went through right after the Big Bang was just one of many inflationary periods that different parts of space were and are still undergoing. When one part of space undergoes one of these dramatic growth spurts, it balloons into its own universe with its own physical properties. As its name suggests, eternal inflation occurs an infinite number of times, creating an infinite number of universes, resulting in the multiverse.
These infinite universes are sometimes called bubble universes even though they are irregular-shaped, not round. The bubble universes can move around and occasionally collide with other bubble universes. As Feeney, et al., explain in their paper, these collisions produce inhomogeneities in the inner-bubble cosmology, which could appear in the CMB. The scientists developed an algorithm to search for bubble collisions in the CMB with specific properties, which led them to find the four circular patterns.
Still, the scientists acknowledge that it is rather easy to find a variety of statistically unlikely properties in a large dataset like the CMB. The researchers emphasize that more work is needed to confirm this claim, which could come in short time from the Planck satellite, which has a resolution three times better than that of WMAP (where the current data comes from), as well as an order of magnitude greater sensitivity. Nevertheless, they hope that the search for bubble collisions could provide some insight into the history of our universe, whether or not the collisions turn out to be real.
“The conclusive non-detection of a bubble collision can be used to place stringent limits on theories giving rise to eternal inflation; however, if a bubble collision is verified by future data, then we will gain an insight not only into our own universe but a multiverse beyond,” the researchers write in their study.
This is the second study in the past month that has used CMB data to search for what could have occurred before the Big Bang. In the first study, Roger Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyan found concentric circles with lower-than-average temperature variation in the CMB, which could be evidence for a cyclic cosmology in which Big Bangs occur over and over.
So Professor Jennings was right after all:
Larry: Okay. That means that our whole solar system could be, like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being......This is too much! That means one tiny atom in my fingernail could be—
Jennings: Could be one little tiny universe.
Larry: Could I buy some pot from you.
pure speculation, based on conceits of mathematicians.
Christ said that in Heaven there is neither marrying or giving in marriage; but we will be like the angels. Matt 22:30 and Mark 12:25. I infer that to mean we will be all one gender.....sorta’.
Once we are free of these earthsuit bodies, and are pure spirit beings with glorified spirit bodies like Christ’s resurrection body, God will have acquired His Forever Family, which is what He desired in the first place, and there will be no more need for procreation.
In our glorified spiritual state, the idea of having sex will be as infantile as a little kid pushing his little model truck around on the floor and making brrrrr motor sounds while he does it. It’s a real big deal to us here and now. But when we ascend to THAT level, we will be in a glorified state, HIGH above the primitive state we are in now. IMHO
IOW: “No, FD2003, there is no universe where you are better looking. Not even the strange ones.”
I can take it.
Is there an anti-verse?
>>Is there an anti-verse?<<
Yes, but you can only see it while playing Beatles records backwards on an old turntable.
I find it strange that someone can believe in infinite universes but not heaven.
We already know that there are at least two universes: the real one and the one the left dwells in.
Yeah, thats where the titles to all of the Countrywide mortage properties are registered. Just wait.
Don’t worry Free, your probably good looking to lots of female freepers also..smile, your on candid camera...
this stuff always makes my head explode.
Each person is a universe tho not a closed one...look at how many life forms make up our bodies...without them, we could not exist..
There is a cosmological answer to that question. You’ve seen the model of space as a grid in which physical objects make indentations?
The gravity of those objects actually bends space. More properly it could be called space-time, because space and time are essentially two facets of the same thing.
The universe does this as well. So if you made a perfectly straight line heading to the “side” of the universe, after a very, very long trip, you would end up at the same point you started from, offset by other internal movement within the universe.
Don't slap Michael Moorcock! He gave us cool books like the Elric saga.
What was in between them before they bumped?
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