Cosmic inflation: 'Spectacular' discovery hailed-Smoking gun proof found of key Big Bang process

[kpete]

MON MAR 17, 2014 AT 08:35 AM PDT
Smoking gun proof found of key Big Bang process
byBobs Telecaster

One of the key elements of the Big Bang theory is the notion that in the initial moments of time, space itself expanded at a clip much, much faster than light. This is known as the "inflationary epoch" (though we would find the word epoch counter-intuitive as it only lasted between 10?33 and 10?32 seconds at the start of the universe.

An astonishing find that is being characterized as a "smoking gun" and a potential nobel prize winner has taken place

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/17/1285412/-Smoking-gun-proof-found-of-key-Big-Bang-process

Cosmic inflation: 'Spectacular' discovery hailed
By Jonathan Amos

Scientists say they have extraordinary new evidence to support a Big Bang Theory for the origin of the Universe.

Researchers believe they have found the signal left in the sky by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came into being.

It takes the form of a distinctive twist in the oldest light detectable with telescopes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26605974

....................

"Our technology combines the properties of superconductivity with tiny structures that can only be seen with a microscope. These devices are manufactured using the same micro-machining process as the sensors in cellphones and Wii controllers," said Anthony Turner, who makes these devices using specialized fabrication equipment at JPL's Microdevices Laboratory.

The B-mode signal is extremely faint. In order to gain the necessary sensitivity to detect the polarization signal, Bock and Turner developed a unique array of multiple detectors, akin to the pixels in modern digital cameras but with the added ability to detect polarization. The whole detector system operates at a frosty 0.25 Kelvin, just 0.45 degrees Fahrenheit above the lowest temperature achievable, absolute zero.

"This extremely challenging measurement required an entirely new architecture," said Bock. "Our approach is like taking a camera and building it on a printed circuit board."

.........................

These and future experiments not only help confirm that the universe inflated dramatically, but are providing theorists with the first clues about the exotic forces that drove space and time apart.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-082

[randome]

1. Dr. Cooper's research finally bears fruit!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]If you don't give yourself the same benefit of a doubt you'd give anyone else, you're cheating someone.[/center][/font][hr]

[Vashta Nerada]

8. Nah.

In that particular episode, he was trying to figure out how electrons moved through a graphene sheet.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

2. It boggles the mind that our universe literally burst forth from a point

infinitesimally smaller than an atom at a point known as the singularity.

I'm an agnostic. I have a problem with the human concept of God. Perhaps it's the "human concept" part that needs work, not that "God" does not exist.

It still all boils down to this question: Where did the universe come from and, if there was something, how did that something come into being.

We're bound by the limits of our knowledge, but those limits are being pushed further and further back. If we're, indeed, merely one bubble in a quantum foam, then where did the foam come from and what is the true scale of our universe. Is it measured within the limits of our measurements, or is it measured on a much smaller scale? Are we merely part of what we know as an atom? Is our Sun merely an electron?

Will we ever truly know how we have come to be here? Were we created by "God"? The more we learn, the more likely that explanation is as good as any. But, then, where did God come from?

[eShirl]

3. "But, then, where did God come from?"

from a planet of gods, evolved over generation upon generation of natural selection from primitive single-celled life

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. As an agnostic, you'll get no debate from me with that comment. nt

[eShirl]

5. It's a joke.

Oh well.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

6. I'm aware of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the comment. I chose reply in kind....

After all, God is just as likely a human construct - humans that have become god-like, humans that have evolved from single-cell organic molecules.

[thereismore]

9. The Universe is. nt

[Auntie Bush]

10. That's the question I always ask...If God exists...Where did God come from?

I will remain agnostic until that question is answered. I might be able to become a believer if someone could explain or answer that question.

[pipi_k]

11. Boggles the mind...

is, for me, an understatement.


My mind can't even function if I try to think about it too much.


Even if the universe sprang from something infinitesimally small, how could there be literally nothing around that tiny tiny something?

Then there's the question of multi-verses...like soap bubbles stuck together but their membranes remain separate...

There's still a "nothing" beyond them. Or maybe there are infinite multi-verses...

aughhhhhh!!!!!!!!

my head is about to explode

[ChisolmTrailDem]

12. "my head is about to explode" ... Indeed, pipi_k! nt

[ismnotwasm]

7. This is so cool

Actually spectacular would be a more appropriate word.

[randome]

13. It's cosmic.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]