Science Scientists find cosmic ripples from birth of universe - Page 6

**Tribal Warfare** · 03-17-2014, 05:14 PM

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.

**BigRedChief** · 03-18-2014, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish

No, Science does not say the universe happened by chance. The Big Bang theory doesn't actually address the creation of the universe. Because science currently doesn't have the technology to find any evidence of what happened before the universe began expanding.
The findings in the OP were never meant to explain the "Why". The findings were meant to show that one of the major predictions for evidence of the Big Bang has actually been verified, giving more validity to the Big Bang theory as a whole.

I'll never know why some see it as an either or.

Why can't the Big Bang be Gods plan? Why can't evolution be Gods plan?

Science is based on fact. Religion is based on faith. They are not competing on the same turf.

Tombstone RJ · 03-18-2014, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Who said there is a cause?

do you realize how stupid you sound?

Tombstone RJ · 03-18-2014, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

If they are going to post things that are explained by supernatural forces I feel inclined to explain with natural forces. Maybe its a character flaw, but really its very simple to just reverse the argument and ask if the universe is not eternal why is god? If the answer is "cuz I believe that" then that my answer is as well.

wow, you have officially solidified your idiocy. We know the universe is expanding right? We have a theory that it started by the big bang, right? So, what caused the Big Bang? The Big Bang theory is basically saying that everything was created out of one explosion and that explosion created all matter and energy and time and space. So, what caused the Big Bang? If that is "the beginning" then what was happening or not happening before this "beginning." If there was nothing happening, if there was no matter, no energy, no time, no space, how did this explosion start?

If you saying everything came out of nothing, how exactly does that work? The Big Bang theory is the biggest magic trick in all of creation if that is what you are saying. But I'm sure you don't believe in "magic" or the supernatural, right? So how did the big bang start?

Let me answer this for you--you don't have a friggen clue.

Sensual Lardass · 03-18-2014, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

wow, you have officially solidified your idiocy. We know the universe is expanding right? We have a theory that it started by the big bang, right? So, what caused the Big Bang? The Big Bang theory is basically saying that everything was created out of one explosion and that explosion created all matter and energy and time and space. So, what caused the Big Bang? If that is "the beginning" then what was happening or not happening before this "beginning." If there was nothing happening, if there was no matter, no energy, no time, no space, how did this explosion start?

If you saying everything came out of nothing, how exactly does that work? The Big Bang theory is the biggest magic trick in all of creation if that is what you are saying. But I'm sure you don't believe in "magic" or the supernatural, right? So how did the big bang start?

Let me answer this for you--you don't have a friggen clue.

Here's another question........what is the universe expanding in to? What was here before?

Hog's Gone Fishin · 03-18-2014, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazycoffey

I was just about to say, maybe the universe is round like the earth and we haven't made it all the way around yet.....

Oh and to continue being devils advocate (although I'm being dismissed). If the answer is just because I believe it; to both the religion and the universe, maybe natural sciences formed from nothing without design and by accident is just as hard to comprehend as a little invisible guy in the sky.

Perhaps, the eternal universe is the eternal being, both "super natural" and "natural science" joined together and explained by two opposite sides of our human comprehension.

It's really hard to fathom something that has no end. That's why I think the universe is inside something else. Which is inside something else , which is inside something else.

**Dave Lane** · 03-18-2014, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tombstone RJ

wow, you have officially solidified your idiocy. We know the universe is expanding right? We have a theory that it started by the big bang, right? So, what caused the Big Bang? The Big Bang theory is basically saying that everything was created out of one explosion and that explosion created all matter and energy and time and space. So, what caused the Big Bang? If that is "the beginning" then what was happening or not happening before this "beginning." If there was nothing happening, if there was no matter, no energy, no time, no space, how did this explosion start?

If you saying everything came out of nothing, how exactly does that work? The Big Bang theory is the biggest magic trick in all of creation if that is what you are saying. But I'm sure you don't believe in "magic" or the supernatural, right? So how did the big bang start?

Let me answer this for you--you don't have a friggen clue.

I guess reading is not your thing. It's been explained 3-4 times in this very thread. So I'll assume you don't want to discuss it.

**Dave Lane** · 03-18-2014, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hog Farmer

It's really hard to fathom something that has no end. That's why I think the universe is inside something else. Which is inside something else , which is inside something else.

Why? Its a flaw of the human mind that makes us think there has to be patterns and beginnings and ends. This is the way things work on earth. It doesn't mean its that way everywhere.

**Dave Lane** · 03-18-2014, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I'll never know why some see it as an either or.

Why can't the Big Bang be Gods plan? Why can't evolution be Gods plan?

Science is based on fact. Religion is based on faith. They are not competing on the same turf.

Because if this is true, its the worst plan in all the universes.

keg in kc · 03-18-2014, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Science is based on fact. Religion is based on faith. They are not competing on the same turf.

Actually I would argue that's not entirely the case, as I believe both the establishment of science and the establishment of religion are highly dogmatic and conservative institutions that have a great deal of difficulty dealing with ideas that are either outside of or in opposition to their accepted norms. Human nature, after all.

The difference of course being that, over time, science can actually change. Slowly, kicking and screaming the whole time, but it can change. Because as you mention at its core it's based on observation.

But, in any case, I would say that they do in many ways compete for the same turf, as you put it. At the end of the day it's all about trying to quantify the universe and our place (if any) in it.

**J Diddy** · 03-18-2014, 06:54 PM

Stop, drop, KABOOM!, baby rub on your nipples
Some call me Ludacris, some call me Cosmic Ripples
Far from little, make ya mammary glands jiggle
Got 'em under control, with a bowl of Tender Vittles
Doc-tor giggles, I can't stop until it tickles
Just play a little "D" and I'll make ya mouth dribble
Bits and Kibbles, got 'em all after the pickle
I swing it like a bat, but these balls are not Wiffle
Hit 'em in triples, with no strikes, stripes, or whistles
I ain't felt this good, since my wood lived off a thistle
Sippin' some ripple, I got quarters, dimes, and nickels
For shizzle dizzle, I'm on a track with the Big Snoop Dizzle
Let the Henny trickle, down the beat, with a ghetto tempo
I done blazed the instrumental, laid it plain and simple
Getting brain in the rental, I done did it again
My eyes chinky, I'm with Chingy, at the Holiday Inn

**BigRedChief** · 03-18-2014, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Because if this is true, its the worst plan in all the universes.

You are a bad man!

beach tribe · 03-18-2014, 06:58 PM

Quote from the future:

Yeah, we were wrong.

Psyko Tek · 03-18-2014, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Saw this. I hate all this photographic evidence of the Big Bang. First thing you know people aren't going to believe the TV show any more.

hot blonde from nebraska
already unbelievable

Three7s · 03-18-2014, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Because if this is true, its the worst plan in all the universes.

Because it's self-evolving, right? God's plan CAN'T be true because he screwed up by not making everything "perfect" instantly, despite God himself being "perfect", right?

Think about this for a second. What would be the point of making everything perfect the first time? Don't you think it would be too easy?

**Bowser** · 03-18-2014, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Three7s

Because it's self-evolving, right? God's plan CAN'T be true because he screwed up by not making everything "perfect" instantly, despite God himself being "perfect", right?

Think about this for a second. What would be the point of making everything perfect the first time? Don't you think it would be too easy?

- Define "perfect"

- Define "God"

03-17-2014, 05:14 PM
Tribal Warfare The Boom Boom Room Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Far Beyond Comprehension Casino cash: $1032813	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.
Posts: 42,014

03-18-2014, 06:54 PM	#85
J Diddy Don't Be A Dick Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Joplin Casino cash: $6987192	Stop, drop, KABOOM!, baby rub on your nipples Some call me Ludacris, some call me Cosmic Ripples Far from little, make ya mammary glands jiggle Got 'em under control, with a bowl of Tender Vittles Doc-tor giggles, I can't stop until it tickles Just play a little "D" and I'll make ya mouth dribble Bits and Kibbles, got 'em all after the pickle I swing it like a bat, but these balls are not Wiffle Hit 'em in triples, with no strikes, stripes, or whistles I ain't felt this good, since my wood lived off a thistle Sippin' some ripple, I got quarters, dimes, and nickels For shizzle dizzle, I'm on a track with the Big Snoop Dizzle Let the Henny trickle, down the beat, with a ghetto tempo I done blazed the instrumental, laid it plain and simple Getting brain in the rental, I done did it again My eyes chinky, I'm with Chingy, at the Holiday Inn
Posts: 33,635

03-18-2014, 06:58 PM	#87
beach tribe Keep doubting J MFing Houston Join Date: May 2007 Location: ft.lauderdale Casino cash: $4848036	Quote from the future: Yeah, we were wrong.
Posts: 21,429

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