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NASA Reaffirms Big Bang Theory
Peretz writes "NASA has found evidence reinforcing a theory of what took place post-Big Bang and time expansion. They claim: 'Over the course of millions of years, gravity exploited the density differences to create the structure of the universe---stars and galaxies separated by vast voids.' Thereby creating a 'structure' to the universe -- a kiddush cup. '...finds that the first stars---the forebears of all subsequent generations of stars and of life itself---were fully formed remarkably early, only about 400 million years after inflation. This is called the era of reionization, the point when the light from the first stars ionized hydrogen atoms, liberating electrons from the protons.'"
Lets not forget that in science you cant prove anything, only disprove. All you can do is postulate a theory and provide evidance to back it up.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
The findings described by this article are not so much about the "Big Bang Theory" per say, which is already fairly well accepted by cosmologists as a likely accurate view of the early universe. Rather this is more about "Inflationary" theories, which describe the rapid expansion in the very ealry moments of the Univesrse. This seems to be the first solid evidence supporting the theory that an Inflationary period occured in the early universe.
Actually, I think he means Quiddich Cup. Bad enough that the religious zealots chime in, but now we have a new threat to science from the Harry Potter geeks.
There is no use resisting, five points to Gryffyndor!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
If the Universe started out in one place, and expanded at less than the speed of light, how can we only now be receiving light from its early days?
.6c, and object B is moving the opposite direction at .6c, does each object appear to be moving at >1c from the other object?
Because the Big bang was not an explosion. The universe didn't start in one place - it was one place, and that place - space itself - expanded.
If object A is moving one direction at
No. Because by special relativity, velocities do not add in the Newtonian fashion. The wikipedia article on it is pretty good.
Who the hell modded this insightful? From the "first" creation story: Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." From the "second": Genesis 2:4 "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens..." "Heavens" is generally understood to be everything which is not the earth, i.e. the universe. In addition, according to the first story the earth was covered with water, but according to the second the earth wasn't covered with water until a "mist from the earth" came.
When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
You're correct. No where does the Bible directly say the earth is 6000 years old.
This theory is based on (in my opinion an incorrect) belief that God created the earth, and then directly followed up by creating everything else, in literally 7 days earth time. Though no where is this stated or implied. Furthermore, time is defined as infinite to God in Genesis, where it's stated that 7 days can be equal to 7 years or 7 minutes.
The 6000 year figure comes from listings of the ages of parents starting with Adam and Eve, which are given when heirs are born and upon death. This is documented in the Bible all the way up to the Kings (Known as chapters Kings I and Kings II). Historical documentation, and some on going religious calendars provide a pretty accurate way to translating dates. Most of this is based on the Bible as a historical document, if you believe the time lines are correct.
Time frames from the Kings on rely on secular historical data, such as the resignation of King Solomon after the destruction of Solomon's temple by the Babylonians. By the time Jesus is born the history of *man* is calculated as being just under 4,000 years old.
Taking everything at face value you *at best* could define when humans started to record history, and place it at 6,000 years. To define a time line for the universe... I think that's better left to scientists than cave men chiseling in stone...
In the simplest terms I can put it...
.. er.. hyper? sphere) so the cars can move in 3 dimensions (left, right, up, down, forward, backwards) and yet still never get outside of the hypersphere. (if it helps, picture it as a normal sphere but if a beam of light would penetrate the surface, instead re-enters the sphere at a spot on the opposite side but really I think that there is no "surface" to penetrate.)
If racecar a is on a straight racetrack with racecar b they will stop and smash at the end of the track. One can be ahead or behind the other one.They are limited to remaining on the line of the track so they are moving in 1 dimensions.
If racecar a is on a racetrack with racecar b, then each racecar is both ahead of and behind each other. They are limited to remaining on the line of the track but can turn so they are moving in 2 dimensions.
Now-- instead of a racetrack, make them the inside of a sphere so they are whizzing around inside it. Instead of moving in a line (1d), they can move in 3 dimensions on the inside of the sphere but would percieve it as if they were moving in 2 dimensions (since they couldn't go down into the ground or up into the air). They can drive as far as they want with complete freedom forward, backwards, left and right, and still never get out of the sphere. Sort of like us on earth.
Now-- cover the earth mentally with cars very close together and start them driving around at a maximum speed of 20 mph. Now... expand the earth to 10 times its size like a balloon (by blowing a lot of air or rock into it). The cars are suddenly 10 times as far apart-- some of them are now so far apart that at a maximum speed of 20 mph, they won't ever see all the earth or other cars if the earth keeps expanding.
Finally- Add one more dimension (like going from a circle to a sphere only go to a
That's the universe and that's light- it can go in all directions and never get out.
Apologies to real scientists out there. B) Best i can do.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
search for "Olbers' Paradox" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olber's_paradox).
This is a helpful hint to curious people about to use Google and is not intended as a spelling flame.