The universe before it began

Seed Magazine ^ | 5/22/06 | Maggie Wittlin

[LibWhacker]

But as density increases, approaching 10⁷⁵ times the nuclear density, this repulsion begins to dominate.

But not in black holes?

[BipolarBob]

Oh no. The creationists have had it now (insert sarcasm).

[Publius6961]

This is an answer?
Just postulate another universe and hope nobody notices? or worse yet, ask that damm embarrassing question...

... WTF did THAT universe come from... ?

[Gordongekko909]

Nope. Ain't dense enough.

[Hodar]

Black holes are balloons compared to the singularity.

To paraphrase Stephen Hawkins "When God said 'Let there be Light', the question isn't whether the universe burst into existance; the question is 'Did God have a choice?'.

There's some good information here that's way over my head. Black holes are in the neighborhood of 10e35 times the nuclear density, nothing near 10e75 (unless I'm severely mis-understanding my physics - which is entirely possible too).

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

10 to the 75th is a lot of anything!!!!:-)

[Hodar]

As I understand things, the distribution of elements from a 'pure energy' perspective, should be very heavy in the Hydrogen, Helium and taper to a stop around Fe (iron). From a single Big Bang, very complex atoms with a higher atomic weight than iron would be practially non-existant.

That doesn't match reality, because we have tons of Silicon, Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Copper, Zinc. As you move up the Periodic Table, the frequency of these elements get more and more rare.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

just before the Big Bang occurred, another universe very similar to ours may have been contracting

I thought we already decided our universe is destined to expand forever; in which case such a universe is not that similar to ours.

The current researcher seems to have a different opinion about our universe's fate...

[Kenny Bunkport]

Picture taken just before the universe was created:

[Hodar]

Darn, I didn't complete my thought; sorry.

So, as the distribution of elements that 'ought' to appear from the 'original' big bang -aka the Singularity- didn't appear, the theory goes that there was a Bang, a contraction and then another Bang, and another contraction and then another Bang (I believe the guess is 5 Bangs to get to where we are today).

[Kenny Bunkport]

Using a theory called "loop quantum gravity," a group led by Penn State professor Abhay Ashtekar has shown that just before the Big Bang occurred, another universe very similar to ours may have been contracting.

Where did that universe come from?

[dangerdoc]

bump

[razoroccam]

The "Hindu" and Buddhist cycle of creation and destruction.

[LibWhacker]

Hmmm... I've always heard black holes are infinitely dense mathematical points.

For instance here at NASA they say:

The star eventually collapses to the point of zero volume and infinite density, creating what is known as a " singularity ".

Or here at MIT:

A black hole forms when a very massive star runs out of fuel. Without the power to support its mass, the star implodes and the core collapses to a point of infinite density.

Confusing!

Thanks for the link, Hodar... Checking it out now.

[Publius6961]

So our universe is a 5-banger?

(I'm not sure if I want to go there...)

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Yeah, but what about the coming Gnab Gib?

[SauronOfMordor]

There's some good information here that's way over my head. Black holes are in the neighborhood of 10e35 times the nuclear density, nothing near 10e75 (unless I'm severely mis-understanding my physics - which is entirely possible too).

I'd always heard that the singularity at the center of a black hole was INFINITELY dense. Which would mean, by this theory, that each black hole forms a new universe (somewhere in hyperspace)

[Mazda3Fan]

I love this stuff, trying to wrap my feeble mind around such complex theories.

[Sterlis]

The same science that can not explain how aspirin works now with a straight face give us ANOTHER universe! They have a ways to go to map out the one we have now. How did the first universe come to be? Oh wait... that must be yet another universe!

[DonaldC]

I wish I was smart enough to get paid to sit around and think this crap up.