Big Bang's afterglow fails intergalactic 'shadow' test

University of Alabama in Huntsville ^ | 01 September 2006 | Staff (press release)

[PatrickHenry]

The apparent absence of shadows where shadows were expected to be is raising new questions about the faint glow of microwave radiation once hailed as proof that the universe was created by a "Big Bang."

In a finding sure to cause controversy, scientists at UAH found a lack of evidence of shadows from "nearby" clusters of galaxies using new, highly accurate measurements of the cosmic microwave background.

A team of UAH scientists led by Dr. Richard Lieu, a professor of physics, used data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) to scan the cosmic microwave background for shadows caused by 31 clusters of galaxies.

The apparent absence of shadows where shadows were expected to be is raising new questions about the faint glow of microwave radiation once hailed as proof that the universe was created by a "Big Bang."

"Among the 31 clusters that we studied, some show a shadow effect and others do not," said Lieu. If the standard Big Bang theory of the universe is accurate and the background microwave radiation came to Earth from the furthest edges of the universe, then massive X-ray emitting clusters of galaxies nearest our own Milky Way galaxy should all cast shadows on the microwave background.

These findings are scheduled to be published in the Sept. 1, 2006, edition of the Astrophysical Journal.

==============

Another story about this is here.

[RightWhale]

There had to be something to blowup

How so?

[gcruse]

I don't understand. The background radiation didn't 'come from' anywhere. It is in place from the fading of the big bang, which took place everywhere at once. The expansion of space since then expanded everyplace equally. Nothing 'went' anywhere.

[Democrap]

Like I said nothing is as stable environment as you can get. So what was there to make it unstable?

[econjack]

Always remember:

"Wherever you go, there you are."

[gcruse]

"Like I said nothing is as stable environment as you can get."

But not, it seems, absolutely stable.

[Red Badger]

Existentialist matter?.......It's not really there, but is there?.......

[Young Werther]

Thanks. Your post must've been a Labor Day of Love!

[colorado tanker]

Kind of a shadowy theory.

[Red Badger]

LABOR OF LOVE.....

Radney Foster vocals/acoustic guitar
Kim Richey harmony
Steve Fishell steel guitar
Bill Hullett guitar
Mike McAdam guitar
Pete Wasner piano
Dan Dugmore acoustic guitar
Michael Joyce bass
Bob Mummert drums



We've been burning that candle down
Both ends at the same time
There ain't enough money in this town
To make it worth working so hard
Honey nothings worth growing so cold
That you lose your heart and soul
So day by day we've gotta spend some time
On the labor of love
It's the give and take when everything is on the line
It's the labor of love
I want you I need you
I know we're strong enough
It just takes working on the labor of love
You've been living on empty arms
I've been standing on shaky ground
I've been thinking 'bout who we are
And what love really means
Girl it's gonna take all we got
But the real thing always does
So day by day we've gotta spend some time
On the labor of love
It's the give and take when everything is on the line
It's the labor of love
I want you I need you
I know we're strong enough
It just takes working on the labor of love
SOLO
I want you I need you
I know we're strong enough
It just takes working on the labor of love
Two people working on the labor of love
Girl we're working on the labor of love


From Raney Foster Labor Of Love
Arista Records 1994
PolyGram Intl Publishing/St Julien Music(ASCAP)
Mommy's Geetar Music(BMI)

[Democrap]

But not, it seems, absolutely stable.

Yeah I guess it gives a new meaning to the phrase 'nothing happened'.

[gcruse]

LOL

[Virginia-American]

Would the gas and dust (or at least a sizable percentage of it) in the galaxy cluster be at thermal equilibrium with the background radiation?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Who knew that there was yet another website devoted to creationism that follows this controversy.

Here's their take on it.

And as usual, they've found "recent" sources for their claims:

However, the temperature estimates of “space” were first published in 1896, even prior to George Gamow’s birth in 1904 (see Guillaume, 1896). C.E. Guillaume’s estimation was 5-6 K, and rather than blaming that temperature on some type of “Big Bang” explosion, he credited the stars belonging to our own galaxy.

And:

The late Sir Arthur Eddington—in his book, The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1926)—already had provided an accurate explanation for this temperature found in space. In the book’s last chapter (“Diffuse Matter in Space”), he discussed the temperature in space. In Eddington’s estimation, this phenomenon was not due to some ancient explosion, but rather was simply the background radiation from all of the heat sources that occupy the Universe.

He calculated the minimum temperature to which any particular body in space would cool, given the fact that such bodies constantly are immersed in the radiation of distant starlight. With no adjustable parameters, he obtained a value of 3.18 K (later refined to 2.8)—essentially the same as the observed “background” radiation that is known to exist today.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Back in Columbus days they thought if you sailed to far you would fall off the edge of the earth. I just wonder what todays great minds say about what happens if you travel to the edge of the universe.

You have lunch at Milliway's, and then attend a Disaster Area concert.

[longshadow]

Would the gas and dust (or at least a sizable percentage of it) in the galaxy cluster be at thermal equilibrium with the background radiation?

I'm speculating here, but I think the answer is "not likely" -- gas and dust in a galaxy cluster is in the vicinity of lots of sources of energy, and thus I would expect it to not be in thermal equilibrium with the CMBR, but much hotter. Also, there are measurements within our own galaxy of tenuous interstellar gas that is at enormous high temperatures.

Perhaps the stray atoms of deep intergalactic space have reached such a reduced density by adiabatic expansion, radiated their energy away to the point where they might approach thermal equilibrium with the CMBR, but I can't think of anywhere else in the Universe where that would be true (except, of course, at the surface of last scattering.)

But I'll defer to others with a better understanding of this.

[Diamond]

There had to be something to blowup because nothing is the most stable environment that can exists so there had to be something.

Nothing is not something. Nothing is not even an environment. Like the song says, nothing comes from nothing. That's why if everything that begins to exist has a cause, and something exists, then Something must have always existed.

Cordially,

[Dimensio]

Nothing is not something. Nothing is not even an environment. Like the song says, nothing comes from nothing. That's why if everything that begins to exist has a cause, and something exists, then Something must have always existed.

Are you suggesting that a causality loop is impossible?

[Democrap]

That's why if everything that begins to exist has a cause, and something exists, then Something must have always existed.

Well then if everything that exist has a cause, what caused Something to exist and how could it always existed is it had to have a cause? And who made my Ford?

[AFreeBird]

So is dark matter everywhere in space? In our solarsystem, between stars, galaxies...?

[doc30]

The shadows in the icrowave background are caused by absorption of ionized gases in these x-ray active galaxies. Microwaves can't get through these galaxy clusters because of these ionized gasses. But the microwaves will pass through galactic clusters where there is no x-ray activity and none of the ionized gasses. Perhaps the galaxies they think have ionized gas, don't.