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03-17-2014, 05:14 PM | |
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Scientists find cosmic ripples from birth of universe
Scientists find cosmic ripples from birth of universe
Published March 17, 2014 Astronomers have discovered what they believe is the first direct evidence of the astonishing expansion of the universe in the instant following the Big Bang -- the scientific explanation for the birth of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago. Scientists believe that the universe exploded from a tiny speck and hurled itself out in all directions in the fraction of a second that followed, beginning just 10 to the minus 35 seconds (roughly one trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second) after the universe's birth. Matter ultimately coalesced hundreds of millions of years later into planets, stars, and ultimately us. And like ripples from a ball kicked into a pond, that Big Bang-fueled expansion caused ripples in the ancient light from that event, light which remains imprinted in the skies in a leftover glow called the cosmic microwave background. Scientists still don’t know who kicked the ball. But if confirmed, the newfound ripples would be amazing proof of what has long been mere theory about what happened in those first millionths of a second. “The implications for this detection stagger the mind,” said Jamie Bock, professor of physics at Caltech, laboratory senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and project co-leader. “We are measuring a signal that comes from the dawn of time.” "It would be the most important discovery since the discovery, I think, that the expansion of the universe is accelerating," Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who is not a member of the study team, told Space.com. He compared the finding to a 1998 observation that opened the window on mysterious dark energy and won three researchers the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics. The groundbreaking results came from observations by BICEP2, a telescope at the South Pole, of the cosmic microwave background -- a faint glow left over from the Big Bang. Beginning a fraction of a fraction of a second after the universe's birth, according to the current theory, space-time expanded incredibly rapidly, ballooning outward faster than the speed of light. The afterglow from that expansion is called the cosmic microwave background, and tiny fluctuations in it provide clues to conditions in the early universe. For example, small differences in temperature across the sky show where parts of the universe were denser, eventually condensing into galaxies and galactic clusters. Since the cosmic microwave background is a form of light, it exhibits all the properties of light, including polarization. On Earth, sunlight is scattered by the atmosphere and becomes polarized, which is why polarized sunglasses help reduce glare. In space, the cosmic microwave background was scattered by atoms and electrons and became polarized too. “Our team hunted for a special type of polarization called ‘B-modes,’ which represents a twisting or ‘curl’ pattern in the polarized orientations of the ancient light,” said Bock. The team presented their work at a press conference Monda at Harvard -- the discovery of that characteristic pattern of polarization in the skies, which they called proof of the gravitational waves across the primordial sky. “This work offers new insights into some of our most basic questions: Why do we exist? How did the universe begin? These results are not only a smoking gun for inflation, they also tell us when inflation took place and how powerful the process was,” Harvard theorist Avi Loeb said. |
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03-17-2014, 10:13 PM | #16 |
Kind of a mod
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Pretty good video explaining what this means. It's hard to understand the magnitude of this, but I've seen it referred to as the "discoveries in physics and cosmology in decades". So here ya go.
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03-17-2014, 10:30 PM | #17 |
Shaken. Not stirred.
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Knock knock knock, Penny
Knock knock knock, Penny Knock knock knock, Penny
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My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done. Such as, drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs. |
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03-17-2014, 10:31 PM | #18 |
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If anybody ever cares to check on it, you should google what's called Planck time you will find amazing things happening in time iso small it's almost immeasurable. That's what they're talking about in the video and what the guy was talking about in the other video about billions of trillionths of trillionths of seconds when you get down to a certain level it's called Planck time.
If you have a scientific mind you will be amazed.
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03-17-2014, 10:38 PM | #19 |
Replaced by a future HOFer !!
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Yes I am thoroughly amazed and even more convinced that God created all of this and in no way could all this have evolved from primordial slime.
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03-17-2014, 10:41 PM | #20 |
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I say this most whole heartedly, you are the proof that your statement is completely wrong.
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03-17-2014, 10:41 PM | #21 |
Immanentize The Eschaton
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That's a good deal for a quality Guard. Solidifies our line and crystallizes our draft philosophy. I like it.
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03-17-2014, 10:44 PM | #22 |
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Planck's time is the time it takes for light to travel Planck's length. Actions across lengths less than this boundary have no meaning because distance/relativity stop and quantum mechanics take over at Planck's length. The smallest length (Planck's length) divided by the fastest speed (the speed of light), is the time it takes for the fastest thing to travel the shortest distance. Thus, times shorter than Planck's time do not make sense.
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03-17-2014, 10:54 PM | #23 |
Threepeat!
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nsfw (maybe)
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03-18-2014, 12:19 AM | #24 |
..........
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I've never understood how/why science and religion are contineuly at odds over creation/birth of time theories. Seems to me the only way to truely understand either would be to concede at least some truth to the other.
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03-18-2014, 12:33 AM | #25 |
Immanentize The Eschaton
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They represent two different methods of answering two different questions using the same set of data.
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03-18-2014, 12:55 AM | #26 |
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So what made the tiny speck that created the universe? Where did it come from? Haha
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03-18-2014, 01:47 AM | #27 | |
Don't Be A Dick
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Quote:
Like you I don't see the big deal either. God made creatures capable of evolving as the situations evolve. Seems pretty perfect to me. |
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03-18-2014, 01:48 AM | #28 |
Don't Be A Dick
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03-18-2014, 03:45 AM | #29 | ||
Mindful Taoist German
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Heh...the universe has stretch marks...
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Quote:
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03-18-2014, 04:10 AM | #30 |
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Thank God!
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