Posted on 04/13/2011 8:47:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
While astronomers are largely baffled by the question of how the universe began, they should probably hurry up and figure it out. In the far future, most of the evidence will be long gone, a new study suggests.
Though future astronomers will likely have the benefit of advanced technology and a more sophisticated understanding of physics, they won't be able to take advantage of the last vestiges of evidence left over from the Big Bang. The trace signals from the explosion that set the universe in motion 13.7 billion years ago will likely be all gone 1 trillion years from now, the researchers said. ..
However, researchers have identified some backup clues that our distant descendants (if humanity is still around) could use to trace the history of the universe.
A lucky time
Astronomers today can look at galaxies more than 13 billion years away that were formed only millions of years after the universe began. They can also study the so-called cosmic microwave background radiation — a pervasive light in the cosmos that was created by the Big Bang and still lingers on.
However, in the distant future, these clues won't be visible to scientists on Earth or its near environs. The cosmic microwave background light will have faded away ..
And because the universe is expanding, the ancient galaxies that are now just within our field of view will be too far away to see from future Earth. ..
However, all hope for future celestial sleuths is not lost, because future astronomers might be able to study the Big Bang through so-called hypervelocity stars that have been flung out of the Milkomeda galaxy.
These stars will be the most distant light sources visible to astronomers in our galaxy in the year 1 trillion A.D. (C.E.).
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
If the world lasts another 200 years, I’ll be surprised (and really, really old!)
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Who wrote this! The Earth won't be around after three billion years!
sorry
It is not possible for beings who live for a century and maintain a 10,000 year old knowledge base to comprehend deep time.
I’ll worry about in a trillion years. Right now high gas prices are causing my disposable income to disappear!
How can we see the light from a galaxy 13 billion light years away unless we are moving at least the speed of light away from it? IOWs how did our galaxy get ahead of the light coming from a galaxy that is supposed to be closer (or was closer) to the center of the explosion everything is supposedly moving away from?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Really! They say the Universe is around 14B years old, earth is maybe 4B, and they are worked up over something that will happen in 1T years?
Some people have way too much time on their hands (pun intended).
I say let ‘em crash. And stop calling me Shirley.
At one time, the theory of the so-called “Big Bang” (thought up by a theologian) was too religious for irreligious scientists, who actually used to think that the universe itself was eternal and had always been there. Then observable red shift proved the theory. (Whoops.) Since then, they’ve been scrambling to secularize the theory somehow . . . desperately . . .
Disappear in a trillion years? Good thing I have it on my hard drive with a back up disc.
The Big Bang created space. Put two dots on a small inflatable balloon and then inflate it. Those dots move away as the balloon inflates. If one dot radiates light it can be received by the other dot, even though both dots were "created" at the same time and didn't even move on their own (neither our galaxy nor our star system have engines, though they may have relative speeds.)
This also puts the limit to how far we can look in the Universe (you can't see things before Big Bang, and distance = c * t.) So 13.75 ± 0.11 billion light years it is. This also means that farther objects are unreachable and unknowable to us at this time; the light from them is still traveling toward us.
There is more discussion here.
If a singularity caused the expansion it had to exist in a specific point/time/space.. Thus the eternal universe theory.
Both theories are valid, and both are not within our capability to conclusively reconcile. We call these things we can not comprehend dark or black. Not a racial thing, just acknowledgment that we can not see what is happening. Some of the newer thinking goes along the lines of there being a time when there was no time/no space and in fact no possibility of a point. The singularity. One can easily lose ones mind thinking about this stuff.
This also means that farther objects are unreachable and unknowable to us at this time; the light from them is still traveling toward us.
How would that necessarily be so? If light emitting objects existed further than 13 billion light years away yet have existed longer than 13 b. years then the light could be reaching us now. Say; an object 20 b. light years away that has existed for 30 b. years. No?
We should take pictures now, then.
May disappear? May? MAY?
Can’t these guys say with certainty that something will happen a trillion years from now?
I might want to set the DVR.
Some say the truth about the Impostor and his missing
birth certificate might be available in that amount of time.
All that money of the LHC, down the drain.
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