Gaping hole found in universe

[IndianaGreen]

Source: Reuters

Gaping hole found in universe

August 23, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A giant hole in the Universe is devoid of galaxies, stars and even lacks dark matter, astronomers said on Thursday.

The team at the University of Minnesota said the void is nearly a billion light-years across and they have no idea why it is there.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said astronomy professor Lawrence Rudnick.

Writing in the Astrophysical Journal, Rudnick and colleagues Shea Brown and Liliya Williams said they were examining a cold spot using the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, and found the giant hole.



Read more: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?alias=gaping-hole-found-in-univ&chanID=sa003&modsrc=reuters

---

Instead of evidence of a Big Bang, they found evidence of a cosmic Birth Canal. Oh, the horrors! God is FEMALE! What would Pope Ratzo do?

[seemslikeadream]

1. not another sex thread!

;)

on edit I'm sorry I forgot this isn't GD!

[maseman]

32. Breaking News!

There's a hole in Uranus.

Sorry.

[jbm]

144. LOL..n/t

.

[Spinzonner]

2. You may have the wrong orifice in mind

[entanglement]

3. Kick - very interesting

[papau]

153. Indeed it screws up "expansion/big bang" to have us 14 B Light yr from bang but only 6 to10 B Light

years from hole.

Wonder if Hawking will take time off of trying to prove there is no God by claiming there are 2 dimensions of time and one is imaginary and then these banes moved apart and so on and so on - and perhaps apply his mighty mind to justifying a small hole in the universe (the book could be called a hole in time - I like the sound of that).

[Bill McBlueState]

154. this finding does not appear to be inconsistent with the Big Bang

You seem to be saying it is, but I can't follow your argument.

In any case, if it *is* inconsistent, the discoverers would certainly raise that point in their paper. That would be a good way to become famous.

[papau]

157. I do indeed say that it is inconsistent - and that no known use of current theory will

produce the effect unless one drops the complex idea of space expanding between particles and goes back to a "Big Bang" that was particles expanding to fill empty space (in the latter case such a void would be expected).

I'll look for someone with a more current degree (mines 65) - and who is actually working in the field as opposed to an actuary mouthing off :-) - that says the same. :-)

[papau]

158. Seems the author of the paper says finding was "unexpected" -not "normal" not forgseen from current

theory.

“We nev­er even ex­pected to find this size,” said Law­rence Rud­nick, an as­tron­o­mer at the Un­ivers­ity of Min­ne­so­ta in Min­ne­ap­o­lis, Minn. It’s “not nor­mal, based on ei­ther ob­serva­t­ional stud­ies or on com­put­er sim­ula­t­ions of the large-scale ev­o­lu­tion of the un­iverse,” added the un­ivers­ity’s Li­liya Wil­liams. She, Rud­nick and a grad­u­ate stu­dent re­port the find­ings in a pa­per to ap­pear in the re­search pub­lica­t­ion As­t­ro­phys­i­cal Jour­nal."



In the science groups (real ones - not DUs) the only comments I could find are (1) "The physical properties of dark energy are unknown (so we do not know what it means), and (2) since Hawking has suggested rejecting the big bang as such in favor of black holes being the genesis points of new universes, this large hole could potentially be us peering into our mother universe (but the 6 billion light year versus 14 billion light year is still not explained) - and someone mentioned the 1988 "bead" concept that could replace the Big Bang and be consistent with Einsteins work.

I have no one saying this does not bring into question the big bang - but I am sure there are some - I just have not found any yet.

[IndianaGreen]

160. I didn't know about Hawking rejecting Big Bang, but John Dobson has.

Dobson is the inventor of the Dobsonian telescope mount. He says we haven't paid enough attention to what happens at the edge of the visible universe and he speculates that there is some sort of quantum tunneling taking effect that recycles the entire universe. In other words, the universe has always been here and there never was a Big Bang. Dobson also has the unorthodox view that all matter is sentient. The entire universe is sentient.

Brief History Of Cosmology

Copyright © 2002 John Dobson

How scientists, ancient and modern, have viewed the Universe

Although the Steady State models got rid of the "origin" problem, they did not get rid of the "creation" problem. But we can get rid of the "creation" problem as well as the "origin" problem by allowing that the particles might recycle from the border of the observable Universe imposed by the observed expansion. (Actually, it is the redshift itself that imposes the border, rather than our interpretation that the redshift is due to an expansion.)

Since the spectral lines of the radiation coming from very near that border appear gravely redshifted, it follows that, as seen by us, the particles giving rise to that radiation are of very low energy and very low mass. And that low mass has two very interesting consequences.

First: Since radiation going through a field of low mass particles will be thermalized to 3K by being so often picked up and reradiated, we have a possible alternative explanation for the observed microwave background radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson, and interpreted by some as the "echo" of the Big Bang.

Second: If the mass of the particles is low, their momentum, and therefore our necessary uncertainty in that momentum, will also be low. But, by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, if our uncertainty in the momentum approaches zero at that border, our uncertainty in the position of the particles there must approach totality. And that allows the particles to recycle from the border. (Also, as the mass of the particles goes down, their electrical size must increase, rendering the formation of atoms and molecules less likely.)

Now if the particles can recycle, by tunneling, from the border of the observable Universe, we can get rid of the "creation" problem as well as the "origin" problem.

http://www.johndobson.org/articles/cosmology.html

[papau]

162. Neat idea - we need some original thought - I am still trying to understand the 1988 "bead" idea n/t

n/t

[melody]

4. There's a Bush's brain joke in there somewhere

But I'm too tired to make it work.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

6. Astronomers Find Bush's Brain

[WillTheGoober]

28. rofl ...

I was waiting for that type of thing to be the punch line as I was reading it.

We're all way too political for our own good.

[Q3JR4]

147. I was about to say...

I'm surprised this "big hole" in the universe isn't at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.

[screenplaya]

151. Ditto n/t

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Wow! Very interesting!

Thermal pics



Two views of the hole in the universe:
The left view shows a “cold spot” within the circle
on a color-coded image of the full-sky cosmic microwave background,
as seen by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
The right view shows the same region on the Very Large Array Sky Survey,
with blue indicating low radio emissions.


MSNBC story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20415284/

<snip>

Photons of the CMB gain a small amount of energy when they pass through normal regions of space with matter, the researchers explained. But when the CMB passes through a void, the photons lose energy, making the CMB from that part of the sky appear cooler.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Oh, for the chance and the ability...

To go have a looksee for myself, in a little lightspeed interglactic sports runabout. With fender skirts, Moon hubcaps, fuzzy dice, chopped and channeled. One must always arrive in style.

Yup, what I want is a customized 51 Mercury spaceship. ;-)

[Whoa_Nelly]

18. Well, then... I call...

SHOTGUN!

...'cuz you ain't goin' without me, babycakes! :bounce: :bounce:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

23. Ok.

But you gotta wear lots of makeup, bright red lipstick, tie-in-front top, capri pants and high-heeled pumps.

It ain't a fetish look, just a completion of the the whole theme. ;-)

[Whoa_Nelly]

26. Just call me Thelma!

;)

[AnneD]

90. You forgot...

your dangling cherry earrings. I'll loan ya my spare pair on the condition I get to go on this road trip.

[lapfog_1]

41. Hey, I hear there's a great little nightspot near there

some kind of restaurant. You can even meet the meat there.

And certain rock stars hang out there too... mostly because they are spending a year dead for tax purposes!

[The Doctor.]

72. Your Avatar reminds me of a sofa in a staircase.

... at least I think it was green.

[stlsaxman]

74. "Eddies in the space-time continuum..." "Okay, but what's that couch doing there?"

“Eddies,” said Ford, “in the space-time continuum.”
“Ah,” nodded Arthur, “is he. Is he.” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his dressing gown and looked knowledgeably into the distance.
"What?" said Ford.
"Er, who," said Arthur, "is Eddy, then, exactly, then?"

From Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

[Ex Lion Tamer]

97. R.I.P. Douglas Adams

Some of the funniest stuff ever written

[hootinholler]

119. I thought the sofa was playing cricket?

:shrug:

-Hoot

[lapfog_1]

125. Never forget that in the grand scheme of things

we are now "Mostly Harmless"

Another thread was wondering where all of the dolphins have gone...

I think I heard one exclaim (with a series of clicks and whistles) "So Long... and thanks for all the fish!"!

There is something very very big and very very yellow casting a shadow over my house right now... should I be worried?
Maybe I should drink a few pints and relax...

[lumberjack_jeff]

145. Worried? I dunno. Let me ask the white mice.

They say to keep my towel and peril-sensitive sunglasses handy.

[lapfog_1]

148. Oh yes, ask the mice... the ones performing all those behavioral

experiments all these years...

how subtle!

[stlsaxman]

135. it's been so long since i read them and they all get jumbled...

but i do love them so...

yeah i think the sofa on the staircase thought it was playing cricket-

the couch appeared out of nowhere in another book maybe...

:shrug: -"yeah me too".

[tactics]

83. but what if mike vicks dogs WANTED to fight?

although anyone with even a cursory understanding of cosmology and theoretical astrophysics (hey im a soldier, all we have is free time to kill in iraq) knows that the universe is infinitely large. it soon follows that there is a finite amount of matter/energy, for if matter were infinite , the universe would be filled, the complete antithesis of a vacuum. therefore, given that a finite amount of matter occupies an infinite space, empty areas are obviously to occur. in the perspective of space, a billion light years, is akin to a billion light year large grain of sand on a whatever size ocean that would have an impossibly large number of stuff, on uranus. seen form Milliways. didnt i tell you, im zaphod beeblebrox baby!!!!!!!

[Vidar]

67. Just borrow Tom Paris' Delta Flyer from Voyager.

[hootinholler]

120. Had my money I'll tell ya, what I'd do...

Go downtown and buy a Mercury or two because I'm crazy about a Mercury, Cruise on down the road...

-Hoot

who is partial to the '60 'vette.

[ContraBass Black]

123. At lightspeed?

You'd never make it.

[Lint Head]

19. This is fantastic. I love this stuff.

I have a theory that the reason planets, stars and all other objects in outer space constantly spin is because we are slowly falling into a void or black hole and doing it the same way water goes down the drain. Relatively speaking nothing that exists is actually still. The earth is spinning and the rocks the dirt and every other thing on and in the earth is spinning.
Wait!? I feel woozy. It's just the beer. I better stop drinking for the night. :dem:

[krispos42]

44. The Big Crunch

This is gonna give the high-forehead boys headaches for DECADES!

[Megahurtz]

139. LOL!!!

The Giant Flush! :hurts:

[Joe Bacon]

85. Looks like they found Vonnegut's Chronosynclastic Infundibulum!

Absolutely fascinating.

It's a shame the fundys cut off the $$$ to fix Hubble... :-(

[Whoa_Nelly]

98. Woo Hoo! The Chronosynclastic Infundibulum will unite us all!

;)

[Octafish]

155. Absolutely.

And the *s said they needed the money for Iraq.

Carlyle gives them a bigger net than Morton Thiokol.

[The Witch]

7. Between Bush's ears, that is.

And yes, my sense of humor, like those WMDs, has just GOTTA be around here somewhere.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

8. One of the many holes of the holy colander of the Flying Spaghetti

Monster. It is how HIS NOODLENESS reached earth. Praise Pasta!

[BulletproofLandshark]

11. Yes, this is further vindication for Pastafarians everywhere.

[IndianaGreen]

17. Heretic! FSM is covered in marinara sauce, to say otherwise is heresy!

All we need is a FSM church council and a Vicar of Pasta and Supreme Noodle to go mainstream (right after the burn the heretics at the stake). ;-)

[alfredo]

25. You totally negate the beliefs of Pesto council.

Idolator.

[Canuckistanian]

40. Looks like we have a schism

All heretics must be boiled in salty water (7 minutes will do), then sprinkled with a good quality extra-virgin olive oil!

Praise his noodliness!

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

89. We Italians are the chosen people!

just a friendly reminder to schismic Pastafarians everywhere :)

[alfredo]

118. I though his birth was in China.

[alfredo]

117. Extra virgin should be used on salads, not on the holiness.

Blasphemer

[Occulus]

168. HERESY!

Extra virgin on His Noodliness keeps his Noodly Appendages supple and prevents them from sticking together!

You would think a poster named "alfredo" would know these things... SHEESH... You deserve fifty lashes with one of His wet noodles!

:spank: :spank: :spank:

[wordpix]

101. and you refuse to bow to the priests of Alfredo. Off with your head!

[Demeter]

69. And What Role Do Women Play in this Pastafarian Universe?

Asking for curiosity's sake--not as a religious seeker, mind you.

And either you make me laugh, or earn a life-long emnity! No pressure!

[wordpix]

100. Females must separate themselves in the great salad bowl of the sky, & be covered head to toe in

heavy Russian dressing to hide their noodly appendages

[Demeter]

107. Just another Patriarchy, Then?

It's not NICE to fool Mother Nature!

[wordpix]

115. most great religions are patriarchal & GSM followers are no exception

Females must stay in the salad bowl to follow GSM's holy sky writings!

[hootinholler]

121. Marinara? Hell no! Bolognaise is the one true sauce! n/t

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. so, um...forgive my ignorance

but what would this look like if you were to actually view it with your own eyes?

If it has no dark matter, does that mean it's not dark?

I feel really stupid right now.

[Poll_Blind]

34. From what I understand of dark matter, you can only tell it exists if...

...there's light passing through the area. The dark matter bends/distorts it and bing- you have your indication of dark matter.

  How they'd tell there was no dark matter there if there was no light shining- I dunno. Maybe it's a supposition.

  Or there's something incredibly HUGE between us and the galaxies we can't see. Oh, that'd be fun.

PB

[Mz Pip]

12. It's Satan's hidy-hole

This would be an explanation from people who don't believe that gravity exists. They cite the fact that people don't revolve around elephants as proof of this. So some big hole in the universe just goes to show you how Satan can suck the life out of everything, even the universe.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[ClintonTyree]

73. Or, just maybe.....

god ran out of ideas and left the area void for future development? :sarcasm:

Sort of like our "this space intentionally left blank" avatar.

I can see a HUGE sign just outside the area: "COMING SOON - FUNDIE WORLD. ARE YOU RAPTURE READY?" Construction starts as soon as George Bush invades Iran. Space is going fast, don't delay. Get YOUR eternal lot in heaven TODAY! Only $25,000 down and payment plans starting at only $1,500 per month. GET YOUR'S NOW! :rofl:

[unkachuck]

13. interesting....

"God is FEMALE! What would Pope Ratzo do?"....if your theory is correct, then the Nazi Pope should be immediately fired and a new Popette installed....

....maybe the Big Bang occured IN the cosmic Birth Canal?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

24. Wouldn't that be like...

Popetta or something?

[kedrys]

14. Must be the Nexus of Sominus

It is a region of demons - it's where the Dark Overlords of the Universe were banished to. :P

All kidding aside, this is very nifty science.

[krispos42]

45. We need Howard the Duck to kick their asses again n/t

[Vidar]

68. Blessed be the name of Howard.

[Harry Monroe]

91. That was the worst movie I ever saw

I wish I could get those 2 hours of my life back that I wasted on that piece of crap!!

[krispos42]

113. I watched it repeatedly

Of course, I was like 12.... :-)

[Miss Chybil]

15. It's the Big Nothing! Amazing! nt

[nebenaube]

75. zero exists!!!!! n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

77. nothing to see here. move along. nt

[cobalt1999]

16. Finally, a place with a little elbow room

I could use a little peace and quiet. :)

[lordsummerisle]

20. Whew

for a minute I thought this was a corollary to the Ring Around Uranus theory posted earlier...

[Javaman]

21. Pffft! nothings is as big as the giant empty space in morons* head. nt

[Jed Dilligan]

22. Now we know where to look for the missing WMDs. nt

[alfredo]

27. Socks! That's where they go!!

[VWolf]

80. Yes!!! And all those missing pens & pencils! nt

[potone]

103. And all the missing noses of the statues of Alexander the Great!

[alfredo]

116. Check the cubicle next to you. That's where they are.

[Harry Monroe]

29. Have they named it yet??

I nominate "Universalanus"

[file83]

46. "it" isn't actually something - "it" is nothing! How can you give a name to nothing?

Or maybe it's Heaven.(?)

[DRoseDARs]

60. I humbly suggest the name: "Ann Coulter's Vagina"

Much like her, it's devoid of anything and it's where no man has gone before. Bah-dump-bump!

[Harry Monroe]

93. For this assertion, you're assuming, of course, that Ann Coulter is actually a woman

I have my doubts.

[Harry Monroe]

92. Jeez, lighten up...

...they called it a "hole"; I was just being facetious. Whether this is something or nothing is a subject for philosophy. If it is nothing, then by definition it should not even exist and the point is moot.

[LanternWaste]

102. We call the absence of...

We call the absence of light, 'darkness', and the absence of atmosphere, 'vacuum'. So I think we do in fact give names to things that, by definition do not exist.




The preceding stab at early-morning pseudo-philosophically crap is presented to you by my third cup of coffee... :)

[Name removed]

132. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fearless]

30. Maybe Homer Simpson was right

and the universe is doughnut shaped. Wouldn't that be a kick. JK.

[IndianaGreen]

37. "the universe is doughnut shaped"

Suddenly I am craving doughnuts. I have to wait until 5 am if I want freshly baked doughnuts from the convenience store down the street from me (Yes, they bake their own). (salivating in anticipation!)

[Fearless]

39. Mmm.... doughnuts....

[loudsue]

43. You guys have the munchies.

....and it's something other people can catch from you. Or we can catch it....somehow I feel myself coming down with the munchies.

:kick:

[Dr.Phool]

31. It's the asshole of the universe!

The red spots are clouds of methane gas. God just farted.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

33. ALSO ON THIS PAGE.... A CALL TO ARMS

Skeptic
September 2007 issue
Rational Atheism
An open letter to Messrs. Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens
By Michael Shermer

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanId=sa013&articleId=423C1809-E7F2-99DF-384721C9252B924A&modsrc=most_popular

[WillyT]

35. Oh C'Mon You Guys ??? - When God Inflated The Universe, He Had To Cork It !!!

Artist's rendition:



EVERYBODY nose that!

:silly:

[Poll_Blind]

36. Here's a good pic of the void:

I think it looks angry.

[tridim]

38. Is anyone else watching "The Universe" on History Channel?

It's been blowing my mind week after week, and now this!

It does a wonderful job (via CG) of bringing massive things into an understandable scale. It would absolutely rock on an Imax screen.

[mzmolly]

129. I'll have to catch that soon.

:hi:

[Mojambo]

42. I'm gonna get blamed for this, I just know it. n/t

[classof56]

124. Nah, don't worry--the Rs will blame Clinton.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that!!

TOC

[drm604]

47. "Gaping hole found in universe"

Heck of a job, Brownie!

[nickgutierrez]

48. A message from God:

"Dude, I totally fuckin' spaced. That was the day, like, Vishnu brought over those brownies, and me and Ajax were all like, 'Dude!', and I completely forgot about those one-billion light years, man. My bad."

[DRoseDARs]

49. So THAT'S were Saddam hid his weapons of mass destruction! n/t

[Ellen Forradalom]

50. Not to mention my keys n/t.

[DRoseDARs]

55. They're probably still in the truck you drove to help move the WMDs, you LIEbral terrist!

I have to wonder how the conservative mind would make such a *cough* sad excuse for an insult *cough* jive with the fact that trucks can't drive in space...

...hmm, perhaps I shouldn't wonder.

[Ellen Forradalom]

56. Oh? Those were WMDs?

I thought they were books. Last time I help a friend move.

[DRoseDARs]

59. Yikes, you were friends with Saddam? Knowing he had all those palaces, what possesed you to help?

If it had been me, I would have told him to just hire some professional movers, easier to keep friends that way. ;) Though, I hear PODS is a pretty good service for do-it-yourself movers. I wonder what it would cost to move tons of illicit weapons and materials from the deserts of Iraq to a gaping hole in a distant part of the universe...

[Ellen Forradalom]

61. If Saddam asks you to show up on Saturday with your truck...

...you gonna say no? Think about it.

[Screwfly]

51. Maybe

this massive hole in the universe is the 'crater' some alien doomsday device left after it went KABOOM!

[psychopomp]

53. I was just about to post the same thing

or...an alien experiment gone awry?

[Bluestar]

52. Fundies will claim that it's "heaven"

[Megahurtz]

140. They Will Think That

it's their "Rapture" hole opening up for them.
I bet that they will actually think that it's a "sign" or something. :rofl:

[Bluestar]

142. I speak from experience

When I was indoctrinated in the fundie church as a child, I was taught that there was a sort of "blank" spot in the Milky Way. I was told that that blank spot was heaven! Hahahaha

[Megahurtz]

166. OMG Seriously?

I have never heard that one. LOL!

[Liberty Belle]

54. A dark hole? Must be Cheney's homeland.

[Nutmegger]

57. k

[Up2Late]

58. What does this have to do with 9/11?

Sorry, I always seem to get at least one of those whenever I post something scientific in LBN.

More later.:yoiks:

[byronius]

62. So cool. Thank you.

[baby_mouse]

63. So... uh.... Is it staying the same size?

... Or is it getting bigger?

If it's getting bigger, how fast is it getting bigger?

[Posteritatis]

126. It'd basically be impossible to tell for awhile, I think

If something's a billion light-years across and moving at anything less than a high fraction of the speed of light, we're going to have a hell of a time noticing.

[H2O Man]

64. It was in Ringo's pocket

in the Yellow Submarine.

[Scout]

84. I've got a hole in me pocket!

:rofl:

I love RINGO!

[Beetwasher]

114. "Fixin' A Hole Where The Rain Comes In

To stop myself from wondering where it will go."

[spindoctor]

65. So THAT'S where they keep the treasury n/t

[Phrogman]

66. Its the drainhole, and we're all headed right for it !

At warp speed!

Ay Scottie...

[TheCentepedeShoes]

70. They've found

Darth Cheney's Undisclosed Location!

[DarkTirade]

71. Maybe it just means that we're not the only ones that make messes and destroy things...

somebody else already did it on a cosmic scale over there.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

76. I dated - once - a girl with that kind of brain

beautiful as hell, but a burnt-out mini LED was 10x as bright and interesting.

[LostInAnomie]

79. I dated - once - a girl with that kind of...

... HEY HEY! :P

[BeyondThePale]

78. There's a hole in daddy's universe, where all the money goes...

apologies to John Prine

[Eurobabe]

81. What would Pope Ratbag do?

Have a bier und butterbrezen!

PROST!!

[Coexist]

82. wow - way cool.

thanks for posting. love this stuff.

[Felix Mala]

86. What if it's just hiding a very sophisticated life force that prefers to

keep its presence unknown to us until we shape up?

[Blue Fire]

87. Found! The Ultimate Faux News Source!

When Bill-ithering O'Reilly stares into space, he's actually receiving messages!:tinfoilhat:

[Botany]

88. neat!

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
I'm filling the cracks that ran though the door
and kept my mind from wandering
where it will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
See the people standing there
who disagree and never win
and wonder why they don't get in my door

I'm painting my room in a colorful way,
and when my mind is wandering
there I will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong
I'm right where I belong
I'm right where I belong
Silly people run around
they worry me and never ask me
why they don't get past my door

I'm taking my time for a number of things
that weren't important yesterday
and I still go

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go
where it will go
I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
and stops my mind from wandering
where it will go

[Lance_Boyle]

94. MELLVAR! DINNER TIME!

Mellvar: Aw, but Mom, I'm playing with my collectibles!
Mellvar's Mother: Now!
(Mellvar groans and disappears)
Fry: All this time we thought he was a powerful super-being, yet he was just a child.
Mellvar's Mother: He's not a child, he's 34!

</futurama>

[Orrex]

95. Nothing to see here.

Move along.

[The Backlash Cometh]

96. Yay! We found the way out of this galactic cesspool!

[KatyMan]

99. See? Even the universe

is affected by global warming...:D

[lonestarnot]

104. Whoa Nellie. Watch your step, that first one is a dilly.

The pic is unaccessible.

[originalpckelly]

105. The uneven distribution of matter in the universe presents a very interesting question:

Why are we here?

That may seem to be the age old question, but I don't intend it that way, I mean the following:

If we observe that energy (and therefore matter) tends to radiate symmetrically from explosions, why did energy from the big bang not radiate symmetrically?

Why is it that there is this void, why did COBE find the variations in the microwave length background radiation? Why are there even smaller variations, like ourselves, in the distribution of matter?

Why aren't there totally symmetrical stars out there, in completely symmetrical (or I guess homogeneous) distributions?

In a way I've been thinking about this since I was about 15/16 and I guess I'm getting closer to some kind of answer. I used to walk home every day from school, at that time, it was a bus stop for an arts school I attended that year. On many days I was lucky enough to have companions, yet on a few, when some event would take them away that evening, I would walk home alone. Out behind my house, and along the entire route of the path home, there was a creek. In this creek there would be slow spots, where the water seemed to be almost placid. Being a dippy young man interested in fun, I'd drop various things into the creek. Sand from the trail, or maybe a rock or two, and even once a Gideon Bible (though that may have been in years prior.)

Irregardless, I was puzzled at how the water's ripples were usually fairly symmetrical. I never thought much of it then, at that time I was off on some odd tangent, as I have been at various times for many of these years, but now that I believe I'm getting closer, those early dalliances done only for fun, seem to be valuable.

In the ripples of water, we see but only one of a great many examples of symmetrical energy radiation, yet our universe appears not to do that even at it's earliest moments. (Hence our existence, and the existence of that void, and all other irregularities in the distribution of matter in our universe.)

It is altogether possible, in fact, it would seem likely, that there is something missing from our understanding of this great universe.

I guess if I'm good enough, and not just some nut with wackadoodle theories, maybe I'm on the path to figuring that out. Who knows?

[DetlefK]

110. regarding radiation and matter distribution...

If our universe wouldn't expand symmetrically, it would have a specially assigned direction. And that would mean, that there wouldn't be momentum conservation.

Where does the void come from? My quick guess: Dark Energy. It exists by itself in the vacuum and generates a pressure that causes expansion.

Where do the CMB-variations come from? They are a picture of the matter distribution in the universe. Low energy means, the radiation comes from a direction, where a lot of gravitation (matter) exists.

Where do the variations in the matter distribution come from? They come from the oscillations in the plasma of the early universe (stationary waves). The oscillation is a superposition of various spherical functions, with it's parameter l ranging up to 250 (translated: extremely hard to visualize).

[tridim]

131. Non-spacial dimensions..

There's no point in going into great detail here, but suffice to say the big bang isn't just moving in the XY&Z directions. See M-Theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory
Big Bang
Unlike more conventional views of creation in modern physics, that are ex nihilo, the M-Theory vision, although not yet complete, is of the whole observable universe being one of many extended 4 dimensional branes in an 11 dimensional spacetime. Although branes similar to that representing our universe can co-exist in the theory, their physical laws could differ from our own, as could their number of dimensions. Some proponents of the theory now believe that a collision of two branes may have been responsible for the Big Bang (see Ekpyrotic).

[Uncle Joe]

134. A baby doesn't develop symmetrically.

I've come to the conclusion, the universe is a form of an expanding impregnated uterus. Be sure to check out tonight's PBS special on the formation of the universe and Earth from the Big Bang.

[lumberjack_jeff]

146. I'm no physicist, but I've asked similar questions.

The answers generally have to do with the fact that the big bang wasn't just an event in which all the matter in the universe exploded radially outward into space, it was the event in which space and time were created and replaced whatever was there prior. In one sense, they say that the universe is expanding - but that can't be true, because the universe is all there is. Physicists say "in the first few nanoseconds of the big bang the universe was the size of a (insert spherical object here)" But since there's no outside to the universe, how can they describe it in three-dimensionality?

In other words, the universe doesn't make sense to us only because our brains can't understand it.

... or maybe it's just me. :shrug:

[IndianaGreen]

149. John Dobson, who invented the Dobsonian telescope mount, thinks there was no Big Bang

I saw a profile of him on a PBS special not long ago. Dobson rejects the Big Bang Theory. Here are a couple of his articles:

"Big Bang" Theory

Copyright © John Dobson

You have to have at least graduated high school to believe in the
"Big Bang" Theory, because in high school three things happen:
First, you're persuaded the impossible is possible,
Then you become persuaded the possible is probable,
Finally you become persuaded the probable is certain.
It takes at least 3 years for this.
Children will never buy everything came from nothing.

http://www.johndobson.org/articles/bigbang.html

A Brief History Of Cosmology

Copyright © 2002 John Dobson

How scientists, ancient and modern, have viewed the Universe

Although the Steady State models got rid of the "origin" problem, they did not get rid of the "creation" problem. But we can get rid of the "creation" problem as well as the "origin" problem by allowing that the particles might recycle from the border of the observable Universe imposed by the observed expansion. (Actually, it is the redshift itself that imposes the border, rather than our interpretation that the redshift is due to an expansion.)

Since the spectral lines of the radiation coming from very near that border appear gravely redshifted, it follows that, as seen by us, the particles giving rise to that radiation are of very low energy and very low mass. And that low mass has two very interesting consequences.

First: Since radiation going through a field of low mass particles will be thermalized to 3K by being so often picked up and reradiated, we have a possible alternative explanation for the observed microwave background radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson, and interpreted by some as the "echo" of the Big Bang.

Second: If the mass of the particles is low, their momentum, and therefore our necessary uncertainty in that momentum, will also be low. But, by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, if our uncertainty in the momentum approaches zero at that border, our uncertainty in the position of the particles there must approach totality. And that allows the particles to recycle from the border. (Also, as the mass of the particles goes down, their electrical size must increase, rendering the formation of atoms and molecules less likely.)

Now if the particles can recycle, by tunneling, from the border of the observable Universe, we can get rid of the "creation" problem as well as the "origin" problem.

http://www.johndobson.org/articles/cosmology.html

[Desertrose]

164. Cool. Did Hubble totally believe in the Big Bag theory?

Seems to me I've read somewhere that in spite of his telescope & his search for red shift, he did not completely buy into Big Bang.

Can't really say I do either...I pretty much agree with Dobson...


IG, love the "birth canal" comment!! Bout time they give the feminine/goddess her due;)

DR

[rug]

106. Named Iraq.

[SaveAmerica]

108. Send Bushco there, because the Hague is too good.

[KansDem]

109. Fascinating!!!

I wonder what the intelligent designers will say about this...

[jdadd]

111. Ah...Ha!!

It's the collective conservative mind....

[Carni]

112. Geez--not another "Bush's brain" story...eom

[Sequoia]

122. Hey, I thought that this morning when I saw the photo.

Female !!! And the scientist said it was "a freak of nature". WTF !! It IS NATURE you knuckleheads.

[krispos42]

127. Update

Astronomers reporting finding nine billion dollars in palletized form, 110,000 Kalishnikov assault rifles, 80,000 Glock pistols, and George W. Bush's retirement ranch in the hole.

There is still no sign of Bush's concience, however!

[mzmolly]

128. How long would it take to download directions on google earth?

Oh that's right, google earth only covers the earth. :P

[InternalDialogue]

130. I can hear the sound from here:

Expansion meetings being called frantically at Starbucks headquarters.

[Uncle Joe]

133. Maybe that's the birth canal for the universe,

I've come to the conclusion, that the universe is actually a form of a uterus with the Earth originally a barren egg and millions of comets striking it bringing water and life giving compounds a form of sperm cells, we literally are made of stardust. Also be sure to check out PBS tonight the birth of the Universe and the formation of Earth, a most fascinating program!

[katty]

136. finally! someone located bush's brain!

[kimmerspixelated]

137. Absolutely God is female!

Always has been and always will be! A cosmic birth canal- Now that ROCKS!!!!

[Uncle Joe]

152. I believe Gods are both, however we're currently

gestating in the female version.

Maybe this was what Jesus meant when he said something to the effect of "no one comes to the father except through me", the way I understand it his primary message was unconditional love, consequently should we destroy ourselves with hate, how can we be born to see daddy or Pa as Opie would call him?

One could apply Moses and the Ten Commandments to this this as well, the one about "Thou shall have no other gods before me" when you're gestating, your mother is the whole ball of wax.

[smiley_glad_hands]

138. So like where is the energy going from the CMB that passes it through it? eom

[paparush]

141. This Just In - Cheney's Heart Located!

[David Zephyr]

143. How long before Pat Robertson claims to have known about it already...

I give him one week maximum before he claims "God" had told him about it.

[galledgoblin]

150. THE DEVOURER OF PLANETS COMES!!

CURSE YOU RICHARDS!!

[otherlander]

156. I could have told you that there was a hole in the world years ago.

[meow2u3]

159. Most likely a close-up photo of Bush's head

Either that, or the stone that takes up space in Cheney's chest where his heart ought to be. :evilgrin:

[Norrin Radd]

161. They forgot to scan it for all the missing socks in the universe.

[JerseygirlCT]

163. Cheney's "undisclosed location"? nt

[redqueen]

165. Nice.

I love how our understanding of reality is continually challenged by these kinds of discoveries.

[benEzra]

167. Damn, I told you we needed to ban .50 caliber rifles. (n/t)

:evilgrin: