Voyager Clue Points To Origin of the Axis of Evil

KentuckyFC writes "Cosmologists have been scratching their heads over the discovery of a pattern imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, the radiation left over from the Big Bang. This pattern, the so-called Axis of Evil, just shouldn't be there. Now an independent researcher from Canada says the pattern may be caused by the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space where there is a sharp change in pressure, temperature and density of ions in space. Known as the termination shock, astronomers had thought this boundary was spherical. But last year, data from the Voyager spacecraft which have crossed the boundary, showed it was asymmetric. The new thinking is that the termination shock acts like a giant lens, refracting light that passes through it. Any distortion of the lens ought to show up as a kind of imprinted pattern on an otherwise random image. But the real eye-opener is that as the shape of the termination shock changes (as the Solar Wind varies, for example), so too should the pattern in the microwave background. And there is tentative evidence that this is happening too (abstract)."

Comments

Why should we care?

[cromar]

It all sounds very interesting and important and technical, but what does it all mean? Dammit! What does it all mean, man?

Re:Why should we care?

[DamageLabs]

It means that the end of the world is imminent.

Quick, grab that towel!

Re:Why should we care?

[Anonymous Coward]

It means that in the next two to five years we can confidently expect the development and release of FTL travel, zero-point energy, a cure for mortality, replicator technology and hot green alien nymphomaniac bikini chicks. From Mars.

Now do you care?

Re:Why should we care?

[physicist_percy]

Understanding the Cosmic Microwave Background is fundamental to our understanding of the Big Bang. In essence, the CMB is left over energy from the Big Bang itself. We initially thought that the CMB should appear uniform across the entire universe. Two major experiments showed that it was not, which left many scratching their heads. This most recent postulate may explain these results.

Re:Why should we care?

[AgentUSA]

Only if I hear about it in a Steve Jobs keynote.

Re:Why should we care?

[jandoedel]

Nope, doesn't affect this. The speed at which a part of the universe expands depends on the distance from us. it's about 70 (km/s) / Mpc (google Hubble's Law) Which means that distant things fly faster away from us than closer things. But the effect this article talks about, affects both photons in exactly the same way, so it would have no influence on the measurement of Hubble's constant.

Re:Why should we care?

[ShieldW0lf]

The singularity, or big bang, is the lowest common denominator state of the mass/energy of the multiverse. This universe is an expression of one of many higher order patterns which the multiverse can assume. Entropy and gravity are expressions of the universes inevitable degeneration back to the singular state. "Before" the big bang, there was another universe, and "After" the big bang, there will be another universe. Although that is misleading, because time is just another spatial dimension, and all of these universes exist simultaneously, connected at the singularity. None of this is infinite, just incredibly large and complex.

Understanding the shape of the multiverse is synonymous with understanding the laws of reality. Where the multiverse came from is beyond human experience, and not really a useful question to contemplate.

Re:Why should we care?

[MikeB0Lton]

If it is beyond our experience, and not something to contemplate, how has your answer been derived? You said it as though it is fact, but it has not been proven. I am still stuck at the "something from nothing" question.

Re:A week too late.

[jandoedel]

No, it just means there's an extra factor that influences the images Planck will make. We just need to find out what the influence is of this extra factor, and then delete that factor from the images Planck makes.

Planck can make the images now, and we can compensate for the Axis of Evil afterwards.

Fascinating stuff

[Fuji Kitakyusho]

I have been following the Voyager updates with some interest over the past couple of years. I find it astounding that we are still managing to get useful data from these vehicles which were launched back in the 70's. Certainly, they have exceeded their design mission, and only advances in large aperture radio coverage here on earth have allowed continued communication. To put this in perspective - the one way light time from earth to both vehicles is now on the order of about 30 hours! Interestingly, the vehicles are adorned with a message to prospective lifeforms who would encounter the spacecraft long in the future - a "golden record", which is technology long since obsolete here on earth during only the short 30 year span of the mission. Food for thought.

Re:Fascinating stuff

[Tisha_AH]

Way back in the 80's I was taking a receiver design course at George Washington University. My lab partner was involved in the continual design of more sensitive receivers to listen in on the voyager craft.
It led to interesting discussions about how the pace of receiver design (sensitivity, noise floor, selectivity). At the time we were learning the state of the art, the folks at the research labs were pushing the limits further and further. It warms my heart to realize that 25 years later they are still making significant advancements.

What it will take to monitor the weakening transmissions from the Pioneers and Voyagers five years from now doesn't exist today. Kudos to everyone involved in the process.

Re:too (abstract)

[Mr Z]

Short version: You know how stars twinkle because of the Earth's atmosphere? Something similar happens at the boundary of the solar system. The difference there is that the boundary is due to the solar wind as opposed to an atmosphere.

The actual distortion is similar to the ripples of light you see on the bottom of a swimming pool due to ripples in the surface of the water. Because the surface is uneven, the light gets bent unevenly and bunches together in some places and spreads out in others. So, instead of even lighting across the bottom of the pool, you see a pattern of light and dark areas.

Same thing's happening to the cosmic background radiation. It should be evenly distributed, but instead it's brighter and darker in places, and they think it's due to the uneven surface of the termination shock.