Posted on 10/25/2007 5:34:21 PM PDT by Nasty McPhilthy
An enormous cold spot in our universe could be explained by a cosmic defect in the fabric of space-time created shortly after the Big Bang, scientists say.
If confirmed by future studies, the finding, detailed in the Oct. 25 issue of the journal Science, could provide cosmologists with a long-sought clue about how the infant universe evolved.
But other scientists, and even members of the study team, are skeptical of the new claim.
Cosmic ice cubes
Scientists think that shortly after the Big Bang, as the universe cooled and expanded, exotic particles transformed into the particles we know today via phase transitions similar to the gas-liquid-solid transitions that matter now experiences on Earth.
And like phase transitions on Earth, defects inevitably occur. When water crystallizes to ice, for example, cloudy spots appear in the ice that mark where water molecules are misaligned. Physicists predict that similar defects happened during the phase transitions of the early universe, and that the defects took different forms.
The team thinks a cold spot in the cosmic microwave background (CMB)—an energy artifact of the Big Bang that has been detected and mapped by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP) satellite—represents the most complex kind of cosmic defect, a 3-D blob-like structure called a texture.
Marcos Cruz of the Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria in Spain and colleagues analyzed the CMB cold spot, which spans 1 billion light-years across, finding it had properties consistent with a texture.
"The cosmic microwave background is the most ancient image we have of the universe, and therefore it's one of the most valuable tools to understand the universe's origins," Cruz said. "If this spot is a texture, it would allow us to discriminate among different theories that have been proposed for how the universe evolved."
'Not compelling'
Other scientists say the team's case for a cosmic defect is still weak. "It would be spectacular, and a new handle on the early universe, if this cold spot turned out to be a texture as opposed to a random fluctuation, which is perhaps a more likely explanation," said Lyman Page, a WMAP team member at Princeton University who was not involved in the study.
Liliya Williams and Lawrence Rudnick, astronomers at the University of Minnesota, recently attributed the CMB cold spot not to a cosmic defect, but to an enormous "hole" in our galaxy, devoid of stars, gas and even dark matter, a mysterious substance thought to pervade the universe but which has so far eluded direct detection.
A "cosmic defect is an intriguing and plausible explanation. However, I don't think one can dismiss a void as the cause of the CMB cold spot," Williams said in an e-mail interview. "Whatever the correct interpretation will turn out to be, it is bound to open a new window on the early universe, but what we'll see through that window is still not clear."
Study team member Neil Turok of the University of Cambridge admits his team's case is "not at all compelling" at the moment. The cold spot could be a texture, but there is a 1 percent probability it is just a random temperature fluctuation in the CMB.
"What makes this so interesting is that there are a number of follow-up checks, which can now be done," Turok said. "So the texture hypothesis is actually very testable."
A cosmic texture would cause light passing through it to bend and point in certain ways that should be detectable by future space missions, Turok said.
Whoops...Seems you posted this to do that!
LOL!
Have fun!
So we fix the defect and Ice-9 the universe. Sweet.
Perhaps it’s not so much a spot as a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ...stuff.
The pranksters serve the purpose of bumping threads often enough that the serious posters eventually find it.
FreeRepublic is made up of folks from rocket scientists to village idiots, from theologians to hedonists. Somehow we keep the whole tribe happy enough to stick around and contribute.
Hey! I resemble that remark.
Not that strange. Who’s qualified to talk about it seriously?
Get a sense of humor. As for a serious comment, I want to know if these scientists confirmed their data. Why are they so certain that what they found is a distortion of the space-time continuum?
By the way, I love your tagline.
ok, somebody’s got to ask:
‘What about Uranus?’
...and I’m a busy Timelord!
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Eddies in the time-space continuum?
There are folks who excerpt science threads from FR, post them on another site, and mock the comments of Freepers. Think of it as providing entertainment for folks who are too insecure in their theology to come over here and debate.
VISIT TO URANUS.
The next place that the distinguished travellers visited was Uranus, where Mr. Punch and his companion were much surprised to find the entire population members of the legal profession.
“I have really no time to attend to you,” said one of the inhabitants, when questioned. “I have an appointment before a Chief Clerk in Chancery of great importance—it is to decide whether some children shall be sent to school with money left to them by their grandfather, or if it shall be saved up until they come of age? It would be better for the children that they should be educated, from a layman’s point of view; but, then, this is a matter of law and not expediency.”
“And how will it go?”
“Oh, of course, against the children. I am their father, and appear for them. But the application is a good thing, although it’s sure to be unsuccessful—good for them, and good for me.”
www.classicistranieri.com/.../13244-h.htm
It’s too rich!
Bush’s fault????
I’m not too sure about that...
Darksheare! Have you been messing with the fabric of space-time?
What? Idiots are still trying to prop up the defunct Big Bang theory? Unbelievable. Things are worse than I thought.
Sounds suspiciously like a Vulcan agent -- I'd watch this guy...
This is what you get when you don't "Look for the Union Label!"
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