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Big Bang's Smoking Gun Found

Midwest Lib

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http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/big-bangs-smoking-gun-discovered-140317.htm

For the first time, scientists have found direct evidence of the expansion of the universe, a previously theoretical event that took place a fraction of a second after the Big Bang explosion nearly 14 billion years ago.

Gravitational waves, proposed by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago but never before proven, are believed to have originated in the Big Bang explosion and then been amplified by the universe’s inflation.
“This detection is cosmology’s missing link,” physicist Marc Kamionkowski, at Johns Hopkins University, told reporters during a webcast press conference on Monday.
“It’s something that we thought should be there, but we weren’t really sure. It has been eagerly sought now for close to two decades,” he said.

“These results are as extraordinary as they get, and they will require the most extraordinary scrutiny,” Kamionkowski said.
“If these results hold up … then we’ve learned only that inflation has sent us a telegram, encoded on gravitational waves and transcribed on the cosmic microwave background sky. It will be essential in the years to come to follow through with more detailed and precise measurements to infer fully what this telegram is telling us,” he added.

This is an absolutely astonishing discovery. This brings us one step closer to understanding the creation and expansion of the universe. It's important to mention, for those that are not knowledgable in physics to focus on the importance of the act of expansion and the relation of gravity to it, as opposed to picturing an explosion. It's easy to get caught up a bit in the misnomer "Big Bang" especially since it uses such descriptive (though inaccurate) words.

Thoughts?
 
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"Something something something god"
 
Big Bang's Smoking Gun Found : Discovery News







This is an absolutely astonishing discovery. This brings us one step closer to understanding the creation and expansion of the universe. It's important to mention, for those that are not knowledgable in physics to focus on the importance of the act of expansion and the relation of gravity to it, as opposed to picturing an explosion. It's easy to get caught up a bit in the misnomer "Big Bang" especially since it uses such descriptive (though inaccurate) words.

Thoughts?

The trickiest part of this is that the expansion happened faster than the speed of light, something that is impossible unless the laws of the universe were not in place yet. Which indeed is the explanation.
 
Big Bang's Smoking Gun Found : Discovery News


This is an absolutely astonishing discovery. This brings us one step closer to understanding the creation and expansion of the universe. It's important to mention, for those that are not knowledgable in physics to focus on the importance of the act of expansion and the relation of gravity to it, as opposed to picturing an explosion. It's easy to get caught up a bit in the misnomer "Big Bang" especially since it uses such descriptive (though inaccurate) words.

Thoughts?

Yup ... good stuff.
It's humbling.
To me, things like this demonstrate how puny we are and how little we can control what will happen with or without us.
Astonishing stuff.
 
The trickiest part of this is that the expansion happened faster than the speed of light, something that is impossible unless the laws of the universe were not in place yet. Which indeed is the explanation.
Yeah.
But it's not so much like an explosion but rather like a reaction among energy and matter in the expanse of space.
 
Yeah.
But it's not so much like an explosion but rather like a reaction among energy and matter in the expanse of space.

It really is an unfortunate name.
Fun fact : The term "Big Bang Theory" was originally coined by astronomer Fred Hoyle (a believer in a different brand of expansion), an opponent of Lemaitre's theory of expansion. Many found this name to be purposefully demeaning, though Hoyle denied it. Regardless, it confuses people to this day...
 
It really is an unfortunate name.
Fun fact : The term "Big Bang Theory" was originally coined by astronomer Fred Hoyle (a believer in a different brand of expansion), an opponent of Lemaitre's theory of expansion. Many found this name to be purposefully demeaning, though Hoyle denied it. Regardless, it confuses people to this day...

The truly astonishing aspect is that it was "triggered" by a single subatomic particle.
Simply amazing.
 
I actually keep pretty close tabs on this stuff and am amazed at how much we've learned about the origins of the universe and the laws which guide it.

There is one thing that still seems a bit confusing. They claim that the static (white noise) that we hear on the radio is supposed to be the radiation left over from the big bang, but how could that be? Radiation is a form of light, which travels of course at the speed of light, so that radiation should have passed by us back when the big bang took place. How could we still be picking up radiation traveling at the speed of light from an event that took place 13.7 billion years ago. We sure as hell aren't traveling anywhere near fast enough to have out-paced it for this long.
 
Yup ... good stuff.
It's humbling.
To me, things like this demonstrate how puny we are and how little we can control what will happen with or without us.
Astonishing stuff.

It does put a damper on how important we think we are in comparison to the rest of the universe, doesn't it? It's logical to imagine that we, as a species, might be considered "not very bright" by other dwellers in this universe when they look at how warlike we are. We evolved on a perfect planet that's "not too hot, and not too cold, but just right," to paraphrase Goldilocks. Maybe if we are given a lot more time, we could become better caretakers overall, but so far the odds are not in our favor, and I don't see them improving, human nature being what it is!

Greetings, bubba. :2wave:
 
“If these results hold up … then we’ve learned only that inflation has sent us a telegram, encoded on gravitational waves and transcribed on the cosmic microwave background sky. It will be essential in the years to come to follow through with more detailed and precise measurements to infer fully what this telegram is telling us,” he added.

If those high-fallutin', smartypants scientist's are so cottonpickin' smart, why are they communicatin' through a telegram? Why not just email it? Text?

Jed-Clampett-Smiles.jpg
 
The trickiest part of this is that the expansion happened faster than the speed of light, something that is impossible unless the laws of the universe were not in place yet. Which indeed is the explanation.

You can go faster than the speed of light in our current universe. It's called general relativity and it allows for gravitational waves and other phenomenon through which an object can be accelerated outside of normal propulsion. The speed of light being the "speed limit" of the universe is a consequence of specific relativity.
 
I actually keep pretty close tabs on this stuff and am amazed at how much we've learned about the origins of the universe and the laws which guide it.

There is one thing that still seems a bit confusing. They claim that the static (white noise) that we hear on the radio is supposed to be the radiation left over from the big bang, but how could that be? Radiation is a form of light, which travels of course at the speed of light, so that radiation should have passed by us back when the big bang took place. How could we still be picking up radiation traveling at the speed of light from an event that took place 13.7 billion years ago. We sure as hell aren't traveling anywhere near fast enough to have out-paced it for this long.

I'm thinking they may be saying it started billions of years ago and is still causing an expansion ... because we ARE still expanding.
 
I'm thinking they may be saying it started billions of years ago and is still causing an expansion ... because we ARE still expanding.

Maybe, but I thought the reason for our continued expansion was due to the so far undetected "Dark energy".
 
The trickiest part of this is that the expansion happened faster than the speed of light, something that is impossible unless the laws of the universe were not in place yet. Which indeed is the explanation.

That's not the explanation at all. And relativity does not hold that space cannot expand faster than light. In fact, it is believed that there are an ever-growing number of galaxies right now that are moving away from us faster than the speed of light because of the expansion of space. Presumably, we will never be able to see or contact these galaxies ever again.
 
How could we still be picking up radiation traveling at the speed of light from an event that took place 13.7 billion years ago. We sure as hell aren't traveling anywhere near fast enough to have out-paced it for this long.

Actually, that's precisely what's happening. The radiation we're measuring as the CMB has been traveling since the recombination epoch (13.8 billion years ago). And because of the nature of the expansion of our universe, there will always be photons from the recombination epoch "just arriving" at earth.
 
You've got to get in that religious shot don't you... How liberally tolerant of you... as usual.

I know Ford didn't make my car because I discovered a wrench!
 
It does put a damper on how important we think we are in comparison to the rest of the universe, doesn't it? It's logical to imagine that we, as a species, might be considered "not very bright" by other dwellers in this universe when they look at how warlike we are. We evolved on a perfect planet that's "not too hot, and not too cold, but just right," to paraphrase Goldilocks. Maybe if we are given a lot more time, we could become better caretakers overall, but so far the odds are not in our favor, and I don't see them improving, human nature being what it is!

Greetings, bubba. :2wave:


Thats what the plan is to make you feel unimportant. Seems it working pretty well huh?
 
For someone who defends Young earth Creationism this isn't an analogy you want to be making.

Good thing I don't defend Young Earth Creationism, then. *shew*
 
Thats what the plan is to make you feel unimportant. Seems it working pretty well huh?

Who needs to involve the universe in that? Our government is handling that very well on its own! :lamo:

Greetings, votemout. :2wave:
 
The trickiest part of this is that the expansion happened faster than the speed of light, something that is impossible unless the laws of the universe were not in place yet. Which indeed is the explanation.

At the time of the big bang, the laws of physics as we know them today did not exist. Therefore, it is very conceivable that the initial speed of expansion was faster than the speed of light, as we know it today.
 
Maybe, but I thought the reason for our continued expansion was due to the so far undetected "Dark energy".

Actually, the dark energy and dark matter are what would eventually stop the expansion, and then the big crunch would begin. However, scientists do not believe there is enough of it to slow down the expansion. In fact, the rate of change of the expansion is increasing.
 
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