Post by auntym on Aug 9, 2011 12:26:15 GMT -6
www.stumbleupon.com/su/1kxI1B/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/08/world-class-team-says-time-was-inherited-from-an-earlier-universe-.html
August 09, 2011
World-Class Team Says: "Time was Inherited from an Earlier Universe"
A world-class team of physicists studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB), light emitted when the Universe was just 400,000 years old have claimed that our view of the early Universe may contain the signature of a time before the Big Bang. Their discovery may help explain why we experience time moving in a straight line from yesterday into tomorrow.
The CMB is relic radiation that fills the entire Universe and is regarded as the most conclusive evidence for the Big Bang. Although this microwave background is mostly smooth, the Cobe satellite in 1992 discovered small fluctuations that were believed to be the seeds from which the galaxy clusters we see in today's Universe grew.
Dr Adrienne Erickcek, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and colleagues believe these fluctuations contain hints that our Universe "bubbled off" from a previous one. Their data came from Nasa's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which has been studying the CMB since its launch in 2001.
Their model suggests that new universes could be created spontaneously from apparently empty space. From inside the parent universe, the event would be surprisingly unspectacular.
Describing the team's work, California Institute of Technology professor Sean Carroll explained that "a universe could form inside this room and we’d never know".
The inspiration for their theory isn't just an explanation for the Big Bang our Universe experienced 13.7 billion years ago, but lies in an attempt to explain one of the largest mysteries in physics - why time seems to move in one direction. The laws that govern physics on a microscopic scale are completely reversible, and yet, as Professor Carroll commented, "no one gets confused about which is yesterday and which is tomorrow." Carroll added: "Every time you break an egg or spill a glass of water you're learning about the Big Bang."
CONTINUE READING: www.stumbleupon.com/su/1kxI1B/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/08/world-class-team-says-time-was-inherited-from-an-earlier-universe-.html
August 09, 2011
World-Class Team Says: "Time was Inherited from an Earlier Universe"
A world-class team of physicists studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB), light emitted when the Universe was just 400,000 years old have claimed that our view of the early Universe may contain the signature of a time before the Big Bang. Their discovery may help explain why we experience time moving in a straight line from yesterday into tomorrow.
The CMB is relic radiation that fills the entire Universe and is regarded as the most conclusive evidence for the Big Bang. Although this microwave background is mostly smooth, the Cobe satellite in 1992 discovered small fluctuations that were believed to be the seeds from which the galaxy clusters we see in today's Universe grew.
Dr Adrienne Erickcek, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and colleagues believe these fluctuations contain hints that our Universe "bubbled off" from a previous one. Their data came from Nasa's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which has been studying the CMB since its launch in 2001.
Their model suggests that new universes could be created spontaneously from apparently empty space. From inside the parent universe, the event would be surprisingly unspectacular.
Describing the team's work, California Institute of Technology professor Sean Carroll explained that "a universe could form inside this room and we’d never know".
The inspiration for their theory isn't just an explanation for the Big Bang our Universe experienced 13.7 billion years ago, but lies in an attempt to explain one of the largest mysteries in physics - why time seems to move in one direction. The laws that govern physics on a microscopic scale are completely reversible, and yet, as Professor Carroll commented, "no one gets confused about which is yesterday and which is tomorrow." Carroll added: "Every time you break an egg or spill a glass of water you're learning about the Big Bang."
CONTINUE READING: www.stumbleupon.com/su/1kxI1B/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/08/world-class-team-says-time-was-inherited-from-an-earlier-universe-.html