Adding Trillions Of Years To The Life Of The Universe

spacedaily.com ^ | 3 May 02 | staff

[RightWhale]

Kind of halfway between the Big Bang and Hoyle's Steady State models. A cyclical model would be easier to imagine than one that has a discontinuity. Everything else is cyclical, why not the structure of the universe as well; there is a kind of stability in cyclical processes, a permanence.

[My Identity]

"I really think nature will be the final arbiter here."

And still, from whence does it all spring?

[balrog666]

Does that mean we should all convert to Hindu-ism?

[Psycho_Bunny]

A new theory of the universe suggests that space and time...

"New"?  A "new" theory?

Ya, if you were born 20 minutes ago this would be a new theory.

This theory's been around for ages.

Who's the moron that wrote this article.

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

Bumping, and adding the ubiquitous "turtles all the way down" comment.

LTS

[asformeandformyhouse]

Ya, if you were born 20 minutes ago this would be a new theory.

Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' spoke of this theory, and even he didn't suggest that it was new at that time.

[longshadow]

cyclical turtles-all-the-way-down cosmological space-time place-moment marker

[LibWhacker]

There was an ocillatory theory I remember reading about years ago that depended on an endless cycle of Big Bang, Big Crunch, Big Bang, Big Crunch, . . . ad infinitum. The period was conjectured to be 80 billion years. I can't remember who came up with the theory.

The thing about it that I really liked was that because time is infinite, every possible permutation of initial conditions would eventually repeat, also an infinite number of times. In other words, we've all been here before an infinite number of times and will be here in the future an infinite number of times. And not only as ourselves, but as every possible permutation of ourselves, experiencing every possible outcome to our lives . . . Someday RightWhale will be president!!! :-)

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Perhaps the unifying principle is the sine wave.

"They have found a simple explanation for the observed fact the universe on large scales looks the same to us left and right, up and down -- a seemingly obvious and natural condition -- that in fact has defied explanation for decades."

In my unlearned mind this seems naive. We are observing the universe from a particular point in it, sort of like the blind men and the elephant, so how may we assume that the view is the same from everywhere?

[MHGinTN]

Does this 'new theory' actually postulate a big crunch? I was under the impression that it refers to the stagnation then re-start without a crunch in the middle ... kind of like a bubble that stretches with each inserted breath, without contracting in between breaths (the breath would be the 'energy field' that is as yet un-identified, that 'breathes' into the bubble).

[LibWhacker]

Right, that's one of the things that seems to be different about this ocillating theory. Also, the "branes" idea is a new one to me, but I'm no expert, that's for sure. This seems to be a new twist on an old idea.

[LibWhacker]

oscillating

[Lazamataz]

Adding Trillions Of Years To The Life Of The Universe.......

........if it would only cut back on the drinking and fatty foods, and stop smoking.

[SteamshipTime]

Where have I heard this before?

Thank you, thank you! I'm here all week!...

[vollmond]

Comtemplating the origin of the universe always makes my brane hurt.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Someone needs to send this to the *bang_list. harharhar

[ecomcon]

Bad, Bad, Branes
Bad, Bad, Branes

[Huusker]

"They have found a simple explanation for the observed fact the universe on large scales looks the same to us left and right, up and down -- a seemingly obvious and natural condition -- that in fact has defied explanation for decades."

Theory, yes. Observed, no. Cosmological theories depend on the axiom that the universe is isomorphic at large scales. But astronomers keep finding bigger and bigger structures: galactic clusters, superclusters, super-superclusters. And voids -- regions 100MLY wide that are almost totally empty.

The author is working from old assumptions and outdated theories.

[techcor]

........if it would only cut back on the drinking and fatty foods, and stop smoking.

Funny as usual. Just think , if the Universe is only 13 billion now it's probably going through puberty. I'm just hoping it doesn't have a sleazy one millenium stand with some galactic cluster.

[RightWhale]

Does that mean we should all convert to Hindu-ism?

No, but consider sending your kids to Princeton.