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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.
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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"
 

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.
 

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.
 
iguanaman said:
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.
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Yeah.
But it's not so much like an explosion but rather like a reaction among energy and matter in the expanse of space.
 
bubbabgone said:
Yeah.
But it's not so much like an explosion but rather like a reaction among energy and matter in the expanse of space.
Click to expand...

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.
 
bubbabgone said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

 
iguanaman said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

Maybe, but I thought the reason for our continued expansion was due to the so far undetected "Dark energy".
 
iguanaman said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Grim17 said:
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.
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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.
 
Grim17 said:
You've got to get in that religious shot don't you... How liberally tolerant of you... as usual.
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I know Ford didn't make my car because I discovered a wrench!
 


Thats what the plan is to make you feel unimportant. Seems it working pretty well huh?
 
Jetboogieman said:
For someone who defends Young earth Creationism this isn't an analogy you want to be making.
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Good thing I don't defend Young Earth Creationism, then. *shew*
 
votemout said:
Thats what the plan is to make you feel unimportant. Seems it working pretty well huh?
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Who needs to involve the universe in that? Our government is handling that very well on its own! :lamo:

Greetings, votemout. :2wave:
 
iguanaman said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Grim17 said:
Maybe, but I thought the reason for our continued expansion was due to the so far undetected "Dark energy".
Click to expand...

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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