Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.
How the fuck... can't comprehend... need water... fuck it.
Yea, tough to wrap your mind around a lot of this. Kind of like trying to envision light waves stretching out as the fabric of spacetime they are moving through expands (picture a wave drawn on a sheet that you stretch out...the wave spreads out too...similar to what happens in space sort of.)
Seen in the form of faint microwaves, this early light helped astronomers perceive tiny variations in what Bennett called "an otherwise astonishingly empty sea of nothingness" that was the baby universe.
Back then, there were no planets, no stars, no galaxies, nothing but infinitesimal differences in temperature.
It may have seemed empty, but these tiny temperature differences formed patterns that eventually clumped into all the physical features we know as matter, including Earth and everything on it.
Yea that craziness is harder to grasp than a Microsoft clustering solution.
Just when you think you've got it all together in one understandable system - POP! Another jigsaw piece falls in your lap and you have to build a new puzzle around it to figure out.
WMAP data reveals that its contents include 4% atoms, the building blocks of stars and planets. Dark matter comprises 22% of the universe. This matter, different from atoms, does not emit or absorb light. It has only been detected indirectly by its gravity. 74% of the Universe, is composed of "dark energy", that acts as a sort of an anti-gravity. This energy, distinct from dark matter, is responsible for the present-day acceleration of the universal expansion.
An incredible read mjrpes. Thanks for the thread :icon14:
Mind boggling stuff this universe thing.
This bit is hard to get your head around.
4% of the Universe, is composed of "dark energy", that acts as a sort of an anti-gravity. This energy, distinct from dark matter, is responsible for the present-day acceleration of the universal expansion.
The principle behind the Gravity Probe B measurement is that ideal rotating systems, free of disturbing forces, always point in the same direction in space. But "the same direction in space" meant one thing to Newton and quite another to Einstein. In NewtonÕs physics, a perfect gyroscope pointed at a star should stay aligned forever. In Einstein's physics, the direction of spin of the gyroscope will gradually change by an amount that can be exactly predicted. The gyroscopes will measure how space and time are warped by the presence of Earth, and how the rotating Earth drags space-time around with it.
Stanford is supposed to release findings this year.
Technological development for the GP-B project began in 1963 and culminated with the launch of the worlds most perfect gyroscopes aboard the GP-B spacecraft in 2004.
I remember reading about this a couple years ago and just looked into it again. One thing I remember was amazing is the spheres that are the gyroscopes are so smooth, that if increased to the size of the earth no point on it would vary by more than 7 feet high.
sent this to my brother who recently graduated in this whole Inflation thing. his reaction is the equivalent of the q3w "old!1" post
(as in, it was big news yesterday)
MKJ wrote:sent this to my brother who recently graduated in this whole Inflation thing. his reaction is the equivalent of the q3w "old!1" post
(as in, it was big news yesterday)
and why is there no kracuspost in this thread? :@
Yeah...I'm rather surprised they are JUST now reporting this. I saw a show about WMAP several months ago.
Where were you when the West was defeated?
[url=http://profile.mygamercard.net/doncarlos83][img]http://card.mygamercard.net/gbar/doncarlos83.gif[/img][/url]
MKJ wrote:sent this to my brother who recently graduated in this whole Inflation thing. his reaction is the equivalent of the q3w "old!1" post
(as in, it was big news yesterday)
and why is there no kracuspost in this thread? :@
Yeah...I'm rather surprised they are JUST now reporting this. I saw a show about WMAP several months ago.
the theory has existed for over 10 years now. its just now that they were able to actually confirm it though. and according to the experts in the field, another such inflation is imminent
Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.
lol, I remember seeing this in an old jr. college astronomy book some odd years back
I'm seriously interested, and certain you know a lot more than I do about this, and, like plained, would just like to see a succinct, to the point, educated view.
