Posted on 03/20/2002 6:47:11 AM PST by dead
Wave goodbye to the universe. The expansion of the universe, which began about 15 billon years ago with the Big Bang, is mysteriously getting faster, Australian and British astronomers say.
However, they admitted yesterday they did not have a clue what "dark energy" was driving the galaxies to defy gravity and fly apart with ever increasing speed.
"We don't understand the physical process," said Matthew Colless, of the Australian National University.
But, "eventually the universe will accelerate so rapidly the more distant galaxies we can see today will move away faster than the speed of light and will disappear over the horizon."
Expansion faster than light is possible because, not only are galaxies flying apart at extraordinary speeds, but space itself is expanding, carrying the galaxies away with it.
Until 1998 astrophysicists were debating whether gravity was slowing the expansion enough to eventually cause the universe to collapse in a Big Crunch.
That year other astronomers, including Brian Schmidt, of the ANU's Mount Stromlo Observatory, near Canberra, produced the first solid evidence that the expansion was accelerating.
Studying exploding stars, they found that the more distant ones were fainter - and thus further - than seemed possible. They concluded an accelerating universe was to blame.
"It was a huge surprise," Dr Schmidt recalled yesterday. "I was rather scared to go out and tell people. I thought they'd laugh me off the planet."
Dr Colless, one of the first he told, was "shaking his head".
The new project, involving the ANU, the University of NSW, the Anglo-Australian Observatory near Coonabarabran, and British scientists, led by Cambridge Professor George Efstathiou, used a different method to reach the same finding.
They spent five years mapping the position and speed of 220,000 galaxies. They then compared the data with microwave radio charts of other scientists to "map" the universe as it was 150,000 years after the Big Bang - before the first galaxies even lit up. They found that only an accelerating universe would have allowed it to grow to today's size.
"Now we have two independent pieces of evidence that both give exactly the same answer," Dr Colless said. "I didn't believe Brian at first ... you have to rearrange the mental furniture."
While most galaxies would vanish from view, the Milky Way, and its nearest neighbours, glued together by gravity, would travel on alone. Dr Schmidt said the confirmation was "great news for me. I can sleep a little better. It's evidence we didn't screw up four years ago."
 |
Well, if scientists can get a clue to this mysterious "dark energy" which is causing the elements of an initial explosion to increase their speeds, it will sure revolutionize the tennis service game. If Anna can learn to harness this "dark energy," then her serve will actually increase in speed as the ball flys away from her racket... |
Mark W.
Every time I get on the Subject of Religion and Creation I Flashback to Mel Brook's History fo the World and the scene where Mel is Portraying Moses bringing the Commandments down from the Mountain...
---- "I Bring to you the Children of Isreal these 15 (Crash) I mean Ten... Yes TEN COMMANDMENTS!! ----
heheh It still Kills me everytime I see it!
Mad Dawgg in ihis best Homer Simpson voice --- "mmmmmm Annnn naaaah Yummmm"
I've been a big believer of the Fifth Dimension since the late sixties!
Yes, that is what I meant. It is precisely because of these objects that I specified "our galactic cluster" instead of "our galaxy".
The point being, the visible sky will not be affected by the expansion.
NOT!!
Try "Trekkie" imagination.
In the long run, we're all dead.
IMHO, the photons would build up in the lights. As somebody said, the plastic bracket would melt.
Truthfully, I have no idea, just something that I wonder about, and yes, I need a life.
I'm working on it.
"Astrophysics is mind-blowing stuff". And thought blowing. And reason blowing. And logic blowing. Until recently we used to call that "wrong". Clearly logic reason and meaning no longer have any value among the dominant majority of astrophysicists.
No, that's not clear at all. In fact, it is wrong. Just because our modern understanding of the universe contradicts your notions of what it should be doesn't mean scientists have lost logic and reason. That attitude itself is illogical and unreasonable.
Just why isn't a case emerging neo-ptolemyic scholaticism? Is the dominant view TODAY always right? With the intellectual life at the universities being what it is, why do we fail to question the "latest findings" in this increasingly byzantine and contentious field (that's right, this article is ignoring all the consensus that ISN'T).
Of course the view TODAY is not alway right, but the direction of progess is clear. We are learning more and understanding more about the universe. It is not just a randomly changing set of views over time.
Who doesn't question the latest findings? These things aren't treated as revealed truth. They are constantly questioned. This article itself discusses two seperate studies that revealed the same answer. Had the first one been wrong the second would have contradicted it. The first wasn't just accepted as fact. That's how science works.
Sure these folks have numbers to back up what they say. So does everyone else. Only a reasoned analysis can reveal whose numbers most accurately reflect actual conditions.
Who is "everyone else" and what are their numbers? Reasoned analysis is what this is all about. The observations can't support two opposed views. There is only one truth.
But to return to science as discovery rather then science as metaphysically revealed religion we would have to turn from science a the knowledge of the TRUTH to science as the awareness of the problem.
Since when is science a "metaphysically revealed religion"? Since it started getting answers you didn't like?
Given the state of public and university education these days, I fear the heyday of true scientific QUESTIONING may be over for a while.
Still, while we've truly gained what we've gained, clearly scientific progress stalls during intellectual and cultural declines.
For those who would argue the above, dealing with the inarguable fact of our overall intellectual and cultural decline is their largest nemesis.
I argue the above on its merits, regardless of any cultural decline. That is more reasonable and logical.
Yea but you left Cow Flatulence out of your Argument so your whole Theory falls apart...
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...
From each frame of reference the light from the headlights would be seen leaving the ship at the speed of light. Someone on the ship would see the beams projected out at lightspeed, and an outside observer would see the beams moving at lightspeed, or 1% faster than the ship.
The discrepencies this creates are resolved by the other relativistic effects of going that fast. While the observer sees the light beams moving barely faster than the ship, the people on the ship see them leaving the ship at lightspeed because time has also slowed on board the ship relative to the observer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.