Posted on 01/25/2008 12:20:07 PM PST by RightWhale
Could The Universe Be Tied Up With Cosmic String?
ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2008) — A team of physicists and astronomers from the University of Sussex and Imperial College London have uncovered hints that there may be cosmic strings - lines of pure mass-energy - stretching across the entire Universe.
Cosmic strings are predicted by high energy physics theories, including superstring theory. This is based on the idea that particles are not just little points, but tiny vibrating bits of string Cosmic strings are predicted to have extraordinary amounts of mass - perhaps as much as the mass of the Sun - packed into each metre of a tube whose width is less a billion billionth of the size of an atom.
Lead researcher Dr Mark Hindmarsh, Reader in Physics at the University of Sussex, said: “This is an exciting result for physicists. Cosmic strings are relics of the very early Universe and signposts that would help construct a theory of all forces and particles.”
His team took data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which is a satellite currently mapping the intensity of cosmic microwaves from all directions, and carefully compared the predictions of what should be seen with and without strings.
Dr Hindmarsh said: “We cannot yet see these strings directly. They are many billion light years away. We can only look for indirect evidence of their existence through precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background, of cosmic rays, gravitational radiation, and looking for double images of distant quasars.”
The four-person team are members of COSMOS, the UK's world-leading cosmology supercomputing consortium fronted by Stephen Hawking. Using a Silicon Graphics supercomputer they made predictions of how the strings would affect the Cosmic Microwave Background, relic radio waves from the Big Bang which fill the universe. It turned out that the best explanation for the pattern of this radiation was a theory which included strings.
Dr Hindmarsh said that better data is required before the existence of cosmic strings can be confirmed. He hopes this will be produced by the European Space Agency's Planck Satellite mission (due for launch this year).
The results are published in Physical Review Letters on 18 January, 2008.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Sussex, via AlphaGalileo.
A new scientific satellite to be launched, and string theory is still not as dead as some have said.
Not a lot here, but some really heavy and hugh strings.
Seriesly.
If 'cosmic string' proves to be better than the "Stren" mono-filament I'm using now, I'll buy some and start filling my fishing reels with it.
So are these the “Dark Matter” which cosmologists say the Universe is full of but they can’t actually see and don’t know what it is?
Here’s hoping the Kosmic Kat doesn’t notice the cosmic ball of string.
String theory is definitely not dead. I thought, however, that cosmic strings have nothing to do with super strings. But not being a physicist I will have to withhold final judgment on that.
No, dark matter and dark energy are other unexplainable things used to explain things when no other explanation seems adequate.
But can Cosmic String detect trip wires like Silly String can? Could Silly String tie up the Universe (yes, but only until it dissolves and it'll leave a stain.)
I was hoping they’d find cosmic Slinkys...
As i understand(?) string theory, everything in the universe is made up of strings, so how can they be billions of lightyears away? Aren’t we sittin’ on ‘em?
What might be amusing is the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background which might be a local phenomenon. Really local.
“Cosmic strings are predicted by high energy physics theories, including superstring theory. This is based on the idea that particles are not just little points, but tiny vibrating bits of string Cosmic strings are predicted to have extraordinary amounts of mass - perhaps as much as the mass of the Sun - packed into each metre of a tube whose width is less a billion billionth of the size of an atom.”
ME: Now, can somebody please explain to me why this is a more “reasonable” or “logical” explanation of the universe than divine intervention? On its face, this is nonsense.
Short version: Physicists make sh** up as they go along.
L
According to some proposals, in the higher dimensions we might indeed be sittin’ on ‘em.
This has nothing to do with reason but with mathematics. These people are all cartesians.
LOL! Well said, RW.
I think aliens are landing in my back yard. I saw a strange track in the snow this morning. We need to set up an observation site equipped with the latest sensors including side looking radar to see if this is true. I can corral some PhD to help if I get enough grant money.
Mathematics is used to speak science.
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