Evidence for Universe Expansion Found

Yahoo (AP) ^ | 3/16/2006 | MATT CRENSON

[The_Victor]

Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.

The discovery — which involves an analysis of variations in the brightness of microwave radiation — is the first direct evidence to support the two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation.

It also helps explain how matter eventually clumped together into planets, stars and galaxies in a universe that began as a remarkably smooth, superhot soup.

"It's giving us our first clues about how inflation took place," said Michael Turner, assistant director for mathematics and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation. "This is absolutely amazing."

Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist, said: "The observations are spectacular and the conclusions are stunning."

Researchers found the evidence for inflation by looking at a faint glow that permeates the universe. That glow, known as the cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about 300,000 years old — long after inflation had done its work.

But just as a fossil tells a paleontologist about long-extinct life, the pattern of light in the cosmic microwave background offers clues about what came before it. Of specific interest to physicists are subtle brightness variations that give images of the microwave background a lumpy appearance.

Physicists presented new measurements of those variations during a news conference at Princeton University. The measurements were made by a spaceborne instrument called the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe, or WMAP, launched by NASA in 2001.

Earlier studies of WMAP data have determined that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, give or take a few hundred thousand years. WMAP also measured variations in the cosmic microwave background so huge that they stretch across the entire sky. Those earlier observations are strong indicators of inflation, but no smoking gun, said Turner, who was not involved in the research.

The new analysis looked at variations in the microwave background over smaller patches of sky — only billions of light-years across, instead of hundreds of billions.

Without inflation, the brightness variations over small patches of the sky would be the same as those observed over larger areas of the heavens. But the researchers found considerable differences in the brightness variations.

"The data favors inflation," said Charles Bennett, a Johns Hopkins University physicist who announced the discovery. He was joined by two Princeton colleagues, Lyman Page and David Spergel, who also contributed to the research.

Bennett added: "It amazes me that we can say anything at all about what transpired in the first trillionth of a second of the universe."

The physicists said small lumps in the microwave background began during inflation. Those lumps eventually coalesced into stars, galaxies and planets.

The measurements are scheduled to be published in a future issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

[edsheppa]

Rimshot.

[beezdotcom]

The only people I'm aware of who speculate such a thing are certain young-earth creationists ...

Actually, I'd imagine there are probably others, but of less notoriety.

One article suggests that c may indeed have slowed down...

However, there may also be evidence to suggest the speed of light has been speeding up...

Personally, I'd take the average, and call it a wash...

[Senator Bedfellow]

Ahhhh; but can a Carnot Cycle be parked in a Hilbert Space?

Sure. Just decompose it with a Fourier transform first.

[The_Victor]

But not rest mass. A photon may have finite momentum but zero rest mass. Photons aren't heavy, they're light.

I posted a link at post 116 with an essay about science being unable to confirm the zero rest mass of a photon. It is interesting that the equations allow for the zero rest mass, but do not confirm it.

[Southack]

...yet the space between us and the Sun isn't expanding.

"Actually, it is. Hubble's constant is about 71(km/s)/Mpc so the distance is growing very slowly. You can do the math yourself."

71 (km/s)/3,261,563.78 light years (i.e. 1 Mpc) multiplied by 17 Billion years (max possible life of universe post big bang - though the actual Hubble Age of our Universe is a smaller/younger 13.77 Billion years) doesn't give us 1 AU (i.e. distance from Earth to Sun today) or even 38 AU (i.e. the size of our planetary system).

In fact, it would give us 1,1670,459,940,000 Kilometers (about 78 AU for 1 AU = 149,598,000km).

So by the math, Hubble Age, and Hubble Constant, real scientists know that Inflation Theory is bunk. Hooey.

78 AU does NOT equal 38 AU (distance from Sun to Pluto...and even Pluto is stretching our Solar System).

[Doctor Stochastic]

At a 90° angle, perhaps.

[The_Victor]

According to the effects of general relativity, this is indeed an "illusion". We do appear to be at the center, but any observer anywhere in the universe will appear to be at the center, from their own perspective.....

Thanks for the exceptionally clear eplanantion.

[The_Victor]

You can buy this home science stuff from Edmund Scientific. They got lots of goodies.

I checked Edmund Scientific's website trying to find a picture of it, but they don't appear to have it. I've received a lot of info on the device in the thread, so I should use the name and look again.

[IFly4Him]

This thread reminds me much of this:

http://www.prophetofdoom.net/fh_aug_toc.html

Particularly the second half of this:

http://www.prophetofdoom.net/fh_aug_chapter10.html

[longshadow]

At a 90° angle, perhaps.

Parallel parking is out of the question, but orthogonal is okey-dokey, eh?

[Southack]

"Are you familiar with the concept of adiabatic heating and cooling? It is essential to the Carnot cycle - two of the four steps involve adiabatic compression/expansion to raise/lower the temperature of the working gas with no heat exchange."

It's the heat exchange that I'm questioning.

The universe had and has a certain amount of heat. If some of that thermal energy is no longer useful for work, then we have entropy...but by what transfer mechanism did the heat in our universe become entropic?!

Where did the heat go (transfer to) in order to no longer be useable for work? What happened to that thermal energy in question, why, and how specifically?

[Doctor Stochastic]

The local sheriff was looking for a deputy, so a blonde went in to try out for the job. "Okay," the sheriff drawled, "what is 1 and 1?" "Eleven," she replied.

The sheriff thought to himself, "That's not what I meant, but she's right." Then he said, "What two days of the week start with the letter 'T'?"

The blonde replied, "Today and tomorrow."

He was again surprised that the blonde supplied a correct answer that he had never thought of himself.

"Now, listen carefully: Who killed Abraham Lincoln?" asked the sheriff.

The blonde looked a little surprised herself, then thought really hard for a minute and finally admitted, "I don't know."

"Well, why don't you go home and work on that one for a while?" said the sheriff.

So, the blonde wandered over to the beauty parlor where her pals were waiting to hear the results of the interview. The blonde was exultant. "It went great! My first day on the job and I'm already working on a murder case!"

[longshadow]

The blonde was exultant. "It went great! My first day on the job and I'm already working on a murder case!"

An amazingly apropro story to tell at this juncture....

[Southack]

Per your requests, I've posted the math that shows that Inflationary Theory is in error. See post #365.

Instead of 1 AU from Earth to the Sun, by Inflation Theory that distance should be 78 AU.

It's not, so Inflation Theory is hooey.

[Southack]

Math that disproves Inflationary Theory. Story at posts #374 and #365.

[longshadow]

"Paging Prof. Pauli....... Paging Prof. Pauli....... Prof. Pauli, please pick up the white courtesy phone......"

[Constantine XIII]

Chuck Norris exhaled, thus beginning the inflationary era of the universe. :P

[Southack]

The math is waiting for you big guy.

Post #365.

Admit that you've just been trumped by math.

[foghornleghorn]

Objects at a distance are moving away from us, and the further away they are the faster away they are moving, everything near us moves away slower.

Ah, but that is assuming the "redshift" is a product of the speed of separation and not some other phenomenon, such as mass changes during new matter creation.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for the ping! Space/time is created as the universe expand. It doesn't expand "into" anything.