Slashdot Mirror


New Sharpened Images From Hubble Telescope Contradict Post-Big Bang Theories (nasa.gov)

An anonymous reader quotes NASA: By applying a new computational analysis to a galaxy magnified by a gravitational lens, astronomers have obtained images 10 times sharper than what Hubble could achieve on its own. The results show an edge-on disk galaxy studded with brilliant patches of newly formed stars... The galaxy in question is so far away that we see it as it appeared 11 billion years ago, only 2.7 billion years after the big bang... The resulting reconstructed image revealed two dozen clumps of newborn stars, each spanning about 200 to 300 light-years. This contradicted theories suggesting that star-forming regions in the distant, early universe were much larger, 3,000 light-years or more in size. "There are star-forming knots as far down in size as we can see," said doctoral student Traci Johnson of the University of Michigan, lead author of two of the three papers describing the research.

98 comments

  1. Super troopers reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Enhance... Enhance... Enhance...

    1. Re:Super troopers reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called "Starship Troopers". Get it right!

    2. Re:Super troopers reference by davester666 · · Score: 3

      It's "Enhance and zoom in!"

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    3. Re: Super troopers reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://youtu.be/ws3oiDBAodc

      I was actually referencing supertroopers, see YouTube link for referenced clip.

  2. Post-Big Bang Theory spin-off by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    starring Traci Johnson

  3. What the hell is this? by RudySolis · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is now sir.

  4. Re:Soon they will realize ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think they'll just realize that they're looking at a really old version of the milky way.

  5. I must not be smart enough. by NMBob · · Score: 1

    How many cubic lightyears of stuff does it take to make a star? I'm not sure why this is surprising. Things were more compact back then, right? :)

    1. Re:I must not be smart enough. by FeelGood314 · · Score: 1

      For a cloud of gas to collapse into a star it has to have a certain mass in a given volume and be below a specific temperature. If the temperature is to high the heat will keep the cloud from collapsing. Clouds that can collapse into a single star are still rare. So you need a much much large cloud and hence you end up with star forming regions where the cloud collapses and as the density increases multiple stars are formed. (as a cloud collapses it heats up but the density increases so that the temperature to support the cloud increases faster than the clouds temperature - basically once it starts to collapse the process speeds up). Anyway, in the early universe the clouds are expected to be warmer, so the amount of gas needed to start the collapse and star forming process is expected to be much larger. So we should see truly huge start forming regions.

    2. Re:I must not be smart enough. by FeelGood314 · · Score: 1

      read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Things were warmer only 1 billion years after the big bang so the clouds to form a star forming rejoin should have been larger.

  6. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Turtles.

  7. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Meaningless. Spacetime expanded from it. Time is from it. The only source or cause of the big bang is that which is beyond space and time.
    By definition.

  8. By "their" clock there is a "before" by perpenso · · Score: 2

    Beyond *our" space/time only. Given a multiverse structure our universe may be somehow derived from a pre-existing universe with its own space/time. So by "their" clock there is a "before".

    1. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      kaylee kuoko ;)

    2. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are not wrong. But then have to deal with a mechanism for creating infinite universes. Which is not science. It can at best be called fan-fic.

    3. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by perpenso · · Score: 4, Informative

      You are not wrong. But then have to deal with a mechanism for creating infinite universes. Which is not science. It can at best be called fan-fic.

      Not science?

      "It sounds bonkers but the latest piece of evidence that could favour a multiverse comes from the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society. They recently published a study on the so-called ‘cold spot’. This is a particularly cool patch of space seen in the radiation produced by the formation of the Universe more than 13 billion years ago ... One of the study’s authors, Professor Tom Shanks of Durham University, told the RAS, “We can’t entirely rule out that the Spot is caused by an unlikely fluctuation explained by the standard [theory of the Big Bang]. But if that isn’t the answer, then there are more exotic explanations. Perhaps the most exciting of these is that the Cold Spot was caused by a collision between our universe and another bubble universe. If further, more detailed, analysis proves this to be the case then the Cold Spot might be taken as the first evidence for the multiverse.”
      https://www.theguardian.com/sc...

    4. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the universe is defined as the entirety of what exists that is causally connected go us, even theoretically, then these other universes in a greater multimeter is just a renaming of the universe.

      By definition we can never see or detect or be affected by anything outside of our universe. If another "universe" "made" ours, then that's just renaming an older part of our universe.

    5. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by jimtheowl · · Score: 2

      "By definition we can never see or detect or be affected by anything outside of our universe" It wouldn't be the first time (no pun intended) that we revise a definition based on better understanding.

      For example, there could be very weak interactions that are not readily observable at a small scale but are via gravitational distortions by dark matter.

    6. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I prefer to think that it was after *a* big bang, not necessarily "our" big bang.

      If you accept the fact that the universe is infinite, then it's quite possible that there have been
      a series of "big bangs" throughout the course of existence. So, the one that's being discussed
      here is a big bang that occurred relatively locally, about 13 billion years ago, but that doesn't
      mean that there hasn't been another/others further away that we haven't seen (yet). In other
      words, referring to "The Big Bang" is somewhat parochial. I'm sure we're the descendants of
      *a* big bang, but not the only one that's ever happened somewhere, at some point in time.

      Personally, I think we need to concentrate our efforts in exploring our own solar system,
      specifically the Kuiper Belt and figure out what that's all about and how it might affect us.
      My impression is that Hale-Bopp kind of surprised a lot of astronomers, so it might behoove
      us to spend a bit more effort on our neighborhood.

    7. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by burtosis · · Score: 1

      The odds it's just random chance is about 1 in 80 or so of at least one in a universe like ours. So I wouldn't hold my breath, but it is intriguing.

    8. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "By definition we can never see or detect or be affected by anything outside of our universe"

      It wouldn't be the first time (no pun intended) that we revise a definition based on better understanding.

      Indeed, "universe" literally means something like "the totality of all that exists". By this original definition, nothing exists outside the universe.

    9. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by sexconker · · Score: 1

      You are not wrong. But then have to deal with a mechanism for creating infinite universes. Which is not science. It can at best be called fan-fic.

      Not science?

      Do you have a null hypothesis? Is it testable? Do you have data from your tests? Can others repeat your tests?

      If you answered "no" to any of the above, it's not science.

    10. Re:By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And maybe not that. Maybe absolute nothing, not even space and time itself, is potentially able to become everything.

      For example, there's no space when there's nothing to measure it against. So you need one thing just to define your point in space. And if there's no space, what point is time? Nothing can happen or change if there's no space for it to happen or change in.

      But if, for example, quantum fluctuations can bring in a single particle randomly, then you suddenly have spacetime. Of course it has to disappear within a very short time because there's still no energy to make it real.

      But if during that brief period of time ANOTHER virtual particle appears within the light cone of that first virtual particle,they now have gravitational energy and that is negative.That means they both could exist permanently now.

      And if the "borrowed" energy in the two particles' mass-energy are less than the gravitational potential (e.g. they are both very close together), there's a surplus of energy and this could be the start of the "explosion" of spacetime as it tries to get everything back to the zero it was. And that could lead to the vacuum energy producing more and more mass as space expands. Say 10^120 particles potentially from just one pair. Given the observable universe only has 10^80 particles, this is plenty enough to make an entire universe.

      This may not be the correct mechanism, but you will have to show it's less likely than a god exists to make it less of an explanation.

    11. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, the lack of a null hypothesis from a random slashdot poster does not make it non science.

      Try again.

    12. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Generally ordinary people use "universe" to refer to the place that contains everything that can be reached by travelling normally around (e.g. in a spaceship). If there is a similar but separate place that cannot be reached from the other place via ordinary means, ordinary people would most likely call that another universe. That is how it works in fiction, too.

      This is a bit like steam being defined as the gas form of water, which is invisible. What people mean when they say "steam" is typically the visible, liquid-cloud form of water they can see (which is what the word originally really referred to, so the definition can be seen as wrong).

      If such a separate universe is discovered, you will either need to change the term's definition or coin a separate term and get everyone to use it (and most likely fail).

    13. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed we cannot entirely rule out nothing (multiverse) , so nothing is ruled out. If the gamboling spaghetti-monster explains little then what can you claim for recursive never-decay fracturing of reality ? ZENO come back we need you .....

    14. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by jimtheowl · · Score: 1

      Your focus on "ordinary people" and proposal to get everyone to conform shows a deep disconnect with the principles of discovery and the driving forces of scientific knowledge.

      Ordinary people don't understand how a kitchen refrigerator work, and will try to change the subject if you try to explain it to them. If science is to go forward, you need not to concern yourself with 'ordinary people'. History has shown that they are too busy mocking and laughing at higher intellects and their ideas, bringing them down when possible to level the plain field.

      When the science is established, there will be other people who have chosen as their calling to educate the masses. I am not saying that one is more important than the other, but it is what it is.

    15. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Do you have a null hypothesis? Is it testable? Do you have data from your tests? Can others repeat your tests? If you answered "no" to any of the above, it's not science.

      Consult the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society. As I am not a member I'll have to defer questions on their work to them.

    16. Re: By "their" clock there is a "before" by perpenso · · Score: 1

      If the universe is defined as the entirety of what exists that is causally connected go us, even theoretically, then these other universes in a greater multimeter is just a renaming of the universe. By definition we can never see or detect or be affected by anything outside of our universe. If another "universe" "made" ours, then that's just renaming an older part of our universe.

      Even if so, the point remains that our space/time, our "clock", is not the only "clock" and that our "big bang" can have a well defined moment in time using an alternative "clock"

  9. Re: There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nah. More likely that the "Big Bang" is like a mirage. We seem to think the Universe started from a singularity 12+ billion years ago, but that lengthens the farther we go back. In fact, it could well be over 100 TRILLION + years. It's just the expansion has been going on at a constant rate.

  10. To be fair... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    the validity of images they are talking about should be questioned because to see that far the Hubble had to squint as hard as it could. ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:To be fair... by MangoCats · · Score: 3, Funny

      I often wonder how accurate the estimates of the gravitational lensing effect are... I mean, I'm sure there are dozens of PhDs based on methods "to be sure within +/- BS" of what they are seeing, but there are enough variables and unknowns in these methods to easily have a "whoops, missed this one" moment, several times.

    2. Re:To be fair... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The camera is Asian (of course), you insensitive clod!

    3. Re:To be fair... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      here are enough variables and unknowns in these methods to easily have a "whoops...

      Researchers do have practice with similar reconstruction techniques. In the linked case there are multiple projections of the same target with varying degrees of distortion, which narrows the range of possible of mistakes. Any proposed lens model used on such has to account for multiple (distorted) copies of the same object.

      Thus, they can re-use the model on single-copy distortions with some degree of confidence.

    4. Re: To be fair... by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Maybe 18 months ago, they were able to accurately predict the lensing, even accounting for dark matter, and position themselves exactly right to intercept photons that were billions of years old.

      It's pretty good, actually.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  11. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by fisted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Magnetism increased in gauss

    What does "increased in gauss" mean?

    until poles began to form

    Are there no poles when only so little magnetism is present?

    ; with north and south pokes come lines of force, and from these, eddy currents form.

    Eddy currents in what? Doesn't a current require some sort of conductor?

    These eddy currents are energy.

    Ok

    This caused the poles to begin to rotate.

    The poles create the currents and then those currents cause the poles to rotate? How/why?

    Since a stationary magnetic field is not moving (by definition) there was no mass or energy, ergo no universe yet.

    Hm

    But a rotating magnetic field is moving, so it can create a universe.

    Why?

    a tangent curve is simply a sine wave as viewed from outside the system.

    Could you explain this?

    The asymptote(s) appear to be a Big Bang because of this.

    We (humans) are simply viewing the universe as a virtual system from outside it.

    Can you elaborate on this?

    This does away with not only pi

    Why?

    but also "dark matter/energy".

    Why?

    I ask you to think about it

    Did that, raised the above questions.

  12. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ugh. Stupid, fucking Internet experts.

  13. Re:GOD WILL GET YOU! by davester666 · · Score: 1

    Ok, done.

    Now what?

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  14. Re:Soon they will realize ... by DivineKnight · · Score: 2

    No, just the one. Swimming through space. With four elephants on its back. Carrying the world on their backs.

  15. Each "star-forming region" makes multiple stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Within a galaxy, things were not more compact then. On the largest (between galaxy clusters) scale, things were more compact, but within a galaxy orbital dynamics are more important than the primordial distribution. There is some difference expected in the appearance of individual galaxies, but the galaxies themselves weren't much smaller.

    The other thing you're confused about is the concept of "star-forming region". These are clouds of gas and dust (such as the "Pillars of creation") dense enough to allow stars to form relatively rapidly. Within such clouds, dozens or hundreds of stars form. It's not one star per region.

    Because fewer stars had formed 10 billion years ago, it was expected that more gas and dust was available, leading to larger clouds.

    1. Re:Each "star-forming region" makes multiple stars by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 3, Informative

      The other thing you're confused about is the concept of "star-forming region". These are clouds of gas and dust (such as the "Pillars of creation") dense enough to allow stars to form relatively rapidly. Within such clouds, dozens or hundreds of stars form. It's not one star per region.

      Alas, we must speak of the Pillars of creation in the past tense. A super nova blew em away.
      https://www.newscientist.com/a...

  16. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    Meaningless. Spacetime expanded from it. Time is from it. The only source or cause of the big bang is that which is beyond space and time.
    By definition.

    Nope. There are plenty of models that take us from a low entropy to high entropy universe and back again within the same set of rules.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  17. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Usually we say energy depends on the square-of-field --> B^2 for magnetic energy density. No time-changing field required for energy.

  18. Re: Jesus Christ by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 0

    Jesus may save, but Moses invests.

  19. I'm a little skeptical by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    The light spots look a little too clean and consistent to me. There's a lot of stretching of an already resolution-stretched area. To come out that clean is not realistic.

  20. Re:Soon they will realize ... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    We'll end up waving to ourselves.

  21. Data is data. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Interpolation is interpolation. Extrapolation is extrapolation. Calling it enhancement does not change the facts.

    You could "upscale" plain old DVD to 4K. It is not 10 times sharper than DVD.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re: Data is data. by JoeRobe · · Score: 2

      You're right and that's exactly why this interesting. This is the equivalent of someone using a digital camera to record an image being enlarged by an external lens. The camera normally wouldn't have the resolution to resolve the image, but something else is enlarging the image for it.

      Same thing is happening here. Without gravitational lensing the image would take up, say 10x10 pixels on the Hubble CCD (total guess) and not be well resolved. But with gravitational lensing that image is now taking up 20x200 pixels (also a guess but the point is that it is significantly more pixels). So the lensing is giving them more information than they would have had. But the information is coming at the cost of the image being warped. Their hard task isn't interpolation/extrapolation, it's using understood physics and probably a lots of assumptions to back out what the unwarped image looks like.

      --
      The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
  22. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That doesn't make sense. The universe is cooling down, hence the entropy of the universe is going down, not up. The moment just after the Big Bang had the highest entropy, and it has been decreasing since

  23. Re:Soon they will realize ... by taiwanjohn · · Score: 2

    My first impression was "Fractals all the way down."

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
  24. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    since one of the "Four Forces" (magnetism) is self-organizing; Here what is more likely to my way of thinking:

    Actually anything 300,000 years after the "big bang" is speculation. You as right as the rest.

  25. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    That doesn't make sense. The universe is cooling down, hence the entropy of the universe is going down, not up. The moment just after the Big Bang had the highest entropy, and it has been decreasing since

    Nope. Entropy in physics is the number of microstates the universe can be in. With all the energy concentrated in one place, there are fewer possible states. With the energy spread around, there are many more possible states.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  26. Sample Size anyone? by Templer421 · · Score: 1

    A sample size of ONE doesn't mean squat.

  27. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

    How dare you, you insensitive clod?!

    --
    Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
  28. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anna+Merikin · · Score: 4, Informative

    What does "increased in gauss" mean?

    Pardon my awkward syntax; Gauss is the measurement of magnetic strength. Once the Gaussian field reaches a certain level, poles are formed. I don't know what the level required is, but it is true nonetheless. This is basic physics.

    Are there no poles when only so little magnetism is present?

    Yes. Below a certain level there, apparently, are no poles.

    Eddy currents in what? Doesn't a current require some sort of conductor?

    Eddy currents do not need a conductor nor medium, any more than magnetism itself does. They exist where (and because) the lines of force intersect with the poles -- or more nearly correctly, with an imaginary line drawn between the poles.

    The poles create the currents and then those currents cause the poles to rotate? How/why?

    See above. Eddy currents are coincidental with the erection of poles; they are not exactly caused by the poles. See any basic physics text which covers magnetism. Since they are energetic in a state in which there is no matter (yet) the energy created (released?) must act on something; the magnetic field is the only thing which exists, so this energy must either cause it to rotate or to expand (since there are no molecules to vibrate yet, there cannot be heat). I choose rotate because the math of the speed of expansion of the universe requires rotation rather than linearity. In either case, rotation or expansion make a magnetic field move, which field started as a stationary one.

    But a rotating magnetic field is moving, so it can create a universe.

    Why?

    Both matter and energy, according to the Standard Model, are moving electromagnetic fields. This is basic quantum theory stuff. A stationary magnetic filed is not moving, so it causes no matter nor energy. Matter-and energy are moving magnetic fields. In a nutshell, increasing magnetism could have resulted in the creation of magnetic poles in nothingness (a stationary magnetic field), and coincident eddy currents, which caused the system to begin rotation.

    a tangent curve is simply a sine wave as viewed from outside the system.
    Could you explain this?>>

    This comes from basic trigonometry. A sine curve is side a of a triangle over side b as the angle between them changes. A tangent curve is side c divided by side a. In searching to understand this, I discovered an article describing the tangent as being "outside" of the system of side a and side b, mathematically speaking. Since the effect of "dark matter-energy" is to increase the speed of expansion of the universe, which has been experimentally shown, graphing that increase would yield a curve that is not sinusoidal, but tangential. This would cause the universe to seem to have begun from a big bang, but only if it were observed from outside of the universe itself. That the universe is a virtual or apparent one is not an original thought of mine, but is fairly commonly-held by some physicists nowadays.

    This does away with not only pi
    Why? >>

    Because a rotating universe can best be described in radians rather than degrees. Since a radian is 360 degrees/2pi, any pi factors in measurements will cancel out.

    but also "dark matter/energy".

    Why?/

    What is called dark matter and dark energy is a construct to explain the increasing velocity of the expansion of the universe. If I am right, then the increasing velocity is an illusion caused by our being outside the actual universe and which makes simple rotation (sine curves) seem like tangent curves. See a book on trig or visit this site http://encyclopedia2.thefreedi....

  29. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by fisted · · Score: 1

    Did I answer them for you?

    Can't say that I understand most of what you said, but yes, you did. Thanks.

  30. Re:"only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Maritz · · Score: 0

    Spacetime began there. Talking about 'before' is like talking about what's north of the north pole.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  31. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by sexconker · · Score: 1, Informative

    Meaningless. Spacetime expanded from it. Time is from it. The only source or cause of the big bang is that which is beyond space and time.
    By definition.

    That's absolutely retarded. If you want to throw out time entirely you're throwing out causality. At that point, you're just saying "fuck it" and allowing anything to happen up until the big bang, then you have a specific set of weird rules for the first moments of the big bang, then you have the actual rules that we know and can test.

    The big bang theory is pretty much baseless conjecture derived from winding back the clock and masturbating over a lot of made up math that can't be tested in the actual universe. We still can't even identify why we appear to be expanding in an accelerating fashion, and you want to pretend that we can turn back the clock with ANY semblance of accuracy, let alone enough accuracy and confidence to say "fuck it, causality and time don't matter"?

    It's a religion.

  32. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, you clearly do not know what the big bang is, nor what science is and even not what religion is.

    The big bang theory is observed. We see the universe receding and it all works back to a single point at the same time. Therefore the big bang theory.

    That's it. Just actual observation.

    And religion requires a crede, faith and articles of that faith set by authority figures. None of which are evident in the big bang theory.

  33. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Gaussian is not a term. And poles form from electric currents running in circles, so you have to have an electric ring first. You do not have one, therefore there is no pole.

    Your poles do not create energy. They cannot create universes either. Because to exist they need electric ring currents, requiring electrical charges from particles to be moving and constrained by matter in a dense state.

    Without any constraining matter the poles neither form nor could they increase in strength, because to increase in strength would require more ring currents in a higher density and greater constraint.

    Converting to radians still does not get rid of pi, since pi is the ratio of the diameter to the circumference of a circle and this is still relevant because the current depends on the linear motion velocity of the charge and it's distance, both related to each other not by radians but by pi.

    Your claims about stationary/moving magnetic fields shows you do not know the first thing about magnetism nor what you're trying to say here. Magnetic fields, stationary or not, contain a field and that field contains energy. Moving the magnetic field does not produce extra energy. And movement makes no sense without another reference point, which your lame half-baked (no, not even half-baked, completely unleavened) hypothesis refuses to actually exist.

    Eddy currents do require a medium. The charge carrying particles themselves. You're getting the EM-wave (photon) mixed up with magentic poles and currents. Yet again demonstrating how little you comprehend about the field on which you're pontificating.

    The bit you're ending on is plain mathturbation and does neither fit observation nor have any causation or mechanism to take place and explains nothing.

    Over all 0/10. If it were possible to give you negative out of ten, I would.

  34. Re: Jesus Christ by Dragonslicer · · Score: 0

    Jesus saves!

    And takes half damage from the fireball.

  35. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Black.Shuck · · Score: 1

    Did I answer them for you?

    So in summary, it's magnets all the way down?

  36. Re: Jesus Christ by Opportunist · · Score: 0

    Jesus saves

    But Buddha makes incremental backups.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  37. "exotic" as ordering function by epine · · Score: 1

    Physicists use "exotic" as an ordering function, with the overly explained on one side and the underly plausible on the other side. Welcome to the great watershed of fundability.

    I use the word "exotic" to mean "outside the observable light cone". This also translates to "amazingly cool" and "so glad you're funding this out of your own pocket".

    If there's one place public money does NOT belong, it's outside the observable light cone.

  38. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....That's it. Just actual observation.

    And religion requires a crede, faith and articles of that faith set by authority figures. None of which are evident in the big bang theory.

    Un-provable theories, speculations, unknowns, beliefs or stuff pulled out of nowhere is not science. So then what is that but just your beliefs, aka religion? You don't have to have formal credes, mantras or a whole full blown organization for it to be a religion. Religion is more than just stuff you do over and over. Science many times is just a religion rather than real science. It's a fine line and many people swallow everything like a baby bird opening wide and swallowing a rock and choking and dieing. Accepting without even giving it a thought to what is being told them just because someone said it was "science". Sounds like a religion, walks like a religion, then it's probably a religion. Even with evidence is presented and it won't be accepted? Yep a religion.

  39. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow.

    So THAT's what a religion is.

    I always thought it was the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

    Of course I'm not as smart as you.

  40. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH! Eddie. In the space/time stream. Yeah. I know him.

  41. Re:GOD WILL GET YOU! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you repented for judging your fellow man? Only God can judge the soul of man.

  42. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 1

    That's absolutely retarded. If you want to throw out time entirely you're throwing out causality. At that point, you're just saying "fuck it" and allowing anything to happen up until the big bang, then you have a specific set of weird rules for the first moments of the big bang, then you have the actual rules that we know and can test.

    Welcome to theoretical cosmology.

    --
    "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
  43. Re: Soon they will realize ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get your hands off me, you dirty ape!

  44. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The Big Bang made testable predictions that no other theory made and has been shown to be consistent with the data we have gathered using newer and newer generations of data collection devices. Scientists predicted the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, a uniform (to 1 part in 100,000) source of microwaves in every direction. There was no other reason to think there would be such a thing, but it turned out to exist.

    Religions don't make testable predictions. The Big Bang Theory made testable predictions that turned out to be correct. The Big Bang Theory isn't religion. QED.

  45. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    No, not by definition.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  46. Look at the full frame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/image2hubblestscihp1727cf4052x4424.jpg

    Find the big white light near the bottom. Now run a line out from that at the 1 o'clock position roughly. See the light with 12 small lights ringing it and 4 outside those? Now look due right and a bit down from that, and you'll find a second almost identical mark. What are those things? Is it some kind of lens error breaking up a single light source or are they really multiple sources? Why are they so regularly formed?

    1. Re:Look at the full frame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very good questions. I'd like to know the answer too.

  47. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pardon my awkward syntax; Gauss is the measurement of magnetic strength. Once the Gaussian field reaches a certain level, poles are formed. I don't know what the level required is, but it is true nonetheless. This is basic physics.

    If you don't even know when magnetic poles form (and it is basic physics according to you), then I am forced to conclude that you don't even understand basic physics.

    Thus, the rest of your pseudo-scientific babble belongs in a novel rather than a textbook.

    Go back to Livejournal, Twitter, or Deviantart. No one here is impressed by your "deep" musings, aka, nonsense.

  48. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    +5 pedantic, jeez. Who shit in your cereal this morning?

  49. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by fisted · · Score: 1

    Not to be pedantic, but I don't think pedantic means what you think it means. Hint: I mostly asked questions.

  50. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by sexconker · · Score: 1

    Uh, we observed the CMBR. We haven't observed any of the fuckery required to support the big bang theory such as time not existing or time looping, causality not existing, everything not existing, everything suddenly existing from nothing, singularities, etc. All the math falls apart when you wind back to T 0. Winding the clock back very close to T 0 and thinking how shit would look like is valid theory, but it's not testable and is not scientific.

  51. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by KGIII · · Score: 1

    No, it is a philosophy.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  52. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

    Entropy only applies to closed systems, correct?

    I sometimes wonder if our "universe" is actually a closed system.

    --
    When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
  53. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Definitely. I can't believe that GP is modded "interesting." I guess that must be because there is no "+5 OMG you have to read this crazy shit" rating.

  54. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    Entropy only applies to closed systems, correct?

    I sometimes wonder if our "universe" is actually a closed system.

    No. The second law of thermodynamics applies to closed systems. If the system isn't closed, the entropy could go up or down. I don't know how you could consider the entire universe to not be closed. If it was open to more state, then that state by definition is part of the universe.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  55. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is a classic case of being unable to distinguish/recognize the difference between a model in one's mind and reality. Best illustrated by arguments about light being a particle or a wave. Light is light, not what we imagine as a particle nor a wave.

  56. Re: "only 2.7 billion years after the big bang" by nintendoeats · · Score: 1

    I see what you are getting at as far as public perception fo science goes. If my chemist friend tells me something about chemistry, then I will believe him so long as I have no glaring evidence against his statements. However, two points:

    1. The process of science is not a religion. It is the opposite of religion because the actual beliefs one holds in pure science are not important, only the method by which one reinforces or discards them. In practice humans are flawed and this doesn't always work out, but in the long term this does seem to be how things play out.

    2. I have learned that I should trust my chemist friend because "science delivers the goods". Because of scientists, mostly talking about things that are incomprehensible to the layperson, we have remarkable technology and have achieved phenomenal things both good and bad. The scientific community at large has earned a level of trust from the layperson because they have been reliable in the past far more often than mere chance would allow.

    That last point leads me to another thought: if I follow a religion, the key principles that I am supposed to live by are laid out simply in a way that any idiot can understand. If one starts to ask more complex questions for example the nature of the trinity in Catholocism, the answer is usually either that it is unknowable or that only select members of the religious leadsership can truly understand. In contrast, scientists will make no bones about how complex the forefront of their fields are these days, but most of them will spend days trying to explain the underpinnings to you if you show an interest.

    There are religious aspects to the way that the layperson treats science in the modern world, but that is simply part of a specialized society. I also trust the engineers at Mazda every time I get in my car, because they've built quite a few of them and they don't seem to fall apart en masse.

  57. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anna Merikin. You are trolling, completely clueless, or both.

    Please stop posting about things you have absolutely no idea about.

  58. Is Anyone Really Surprised? by mightybutton · · Score: 1

    We obviously have to make educated hypothesis on the age of the universe, but I don't think anyone is surprised we got it wrong (or still have it wrong). In the famous words of Albert Einstein: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

  59. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Synonyms for "pedantic:" http://www.thesaurus.com/brows...

  60. Re:There was no "Big Bang"... by fisted · · Score: 1

    Your point being?