Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 07:37 AM Oct 2015

Mystery bright spots could be first glimpse of another universe

THE curtain at the edge of the universe may be rippling, hinting that there’s more backstage. Data from the European Space Agency’s Planck telescope could be giving us our first glimpse of another universe, with different physics, bumping up against our own.

That’s the tentative conclusion of an analysis by Ranga-Ram Chary, a researcher at Planck’s US data centre in California. Armed with Planck’s painstaking map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – light lingering from the hot, soupy state of the early universe – Chary revealed an eerie glow that could be due to matter from a neighbouring universe leaking into ours.

This sort of collision should be possible, according to modern cosmological theories that suggest the universe we see is just one bubble among many. Such a multiverse may be a consequence of cosmic inflation, the widely accepted idea that the early universe expanded exponentially in the slimmest fraction of a second after the big bang.


Once it starts, inflation never quite stops, so a multitude of universes becomes nearly inevitable. “I would say most versions of inflation in fact lead to eternal inflation, producing a number of pocket universes,” says Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an architect of the theory.

Energy hidden in empty space drives inflation, and the amount that’s around could vary from place to place, so some regions would eventually settle down and stop expanding at such a manic pace. But the spots where inflation is going gangbusters would spawn inflating universes. And even areas within these new bubbles could balloon into pocket universes themselves.

Like compositions on the same theme, each universe produced this way would be likely to have its own spin on physics. The matter in some bubbles – the boring ones – would fly apart within 10-40 seconds of their creation. Others would be full of particles and rules similar to ours, or even exactly like ours. In the multiverse of eternal inflation, everything that can happen has happened – and will probably happen again.


https://www.newscientist.com/article/mystery-bright-spots-could-be-first-glimpse-of-another-universe/


27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Mystery bright spots could be first glimpse of another universe (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Oct 2015 OP
KnR for visibility. nt tblue37 Oct 2015 #1
Love the cartoon! longship Oct 2015 #2
Sadly, we're in the universe where ThoughtCriminal Oct 2015 #23
Thanks! gvstn Oct 2015 #24
Thank you for posting this! K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t RKP5637 Oct 2015 #3
God, a Multiverse Jeroen Oct 2015 #4
Love this stuff! blackspade Oct 2015 #5
I know, right? gregcrawford Oct 2015 #6
Pocket universes were used on Fringe fasttense Oct 2015 #7
Old theme in science fiction. hobbit709 Oct 2015 #8
I miss that show, but I had a feeling LuvNewcastle Oct 2015 #11
Had the pleasure of binge watching exboyfil Oct 2015 #19
Thank You For Sharing cantbeserious Oct 2015 #9
All of this has happened before and will happen again Xipe Totec Oct 2015 #10
Sounds like a good description of a LuvNewcastle Oct 2015 #12
Fascinating! BlueMTexpat Oct 2015 #13
I really like this idea an awful lot. kenfrequed Oct 2015 #14
The big bang certainly happened cpwm17 Oct 2015 #16
''.. Just one free miracle '',,,,,Terence McKenna Ichingcarpenter Oct 2015 #17
Interesting essay, but it mischaracterizes how we got to the Big Bang idea. mn9driver Oct 2015 #20
but we know you can get something out of nothing qazplm Oct 2015 #27
"Everything that can happen has happened – and will probably happen again." cpwm17 Oct 2015 #15
Fascinating, as Mr. Spock would say n/t deutsey Oct 2015 #18
Did the title make anyone else wonder if this was an Onion piece about Ceres? Fumesucker Oct 2015 #21
In one of Einstein's theories, Utopian Leftist Oct 2015 #22
Big subject! How can anyone grapple with it? So interesting. Thank you. n/t Judi Lynn Oct 2015 #25
I saw that on Outer Limits. It's not going to end well. :( n/t Binkie The Clown Oct 2015 #26

longship

(40,416 posts)
2. Love the cartoon!
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 07:44 AM
Oct 2015

Mirror Mirror!



Beware, the goatee! And the agonizer (available only within the GOP debates).

ThoughtCriminal

(14,011 posts)
23. Sadly, we're in the universe where
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 08:19 PM
Oct 2015

Spock will not only have a beard, he 'll have a Mohawk. Crew members hide from him in the the agony booth.

I know that is our universe because Dick Cheney is allowed to roam free.



gvstn

(2,805 posts)
24. Thanks!
Fri Oct 30, 2015, 08:16 PM
Oct 2015

I thought I had seen every Star Trek episode back when we only had three channels. But don't remember this one.

 

fasttense

(17,301 posts)
7. Pocket universes were used on Fringe
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 08:49 AM
Oct 2015

I had no idea they were based on fact. Wow, talk about feeling insignificant.

LuvNewcastle

(16,820 posts)
11. I miss that show, but I had a feeling
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 09:31 AM
Oct 2015

from the beginning that it wasn't going to last long. Most of the tv audience doesn't want to think as much as that show demanded, sometimes.

kenfrequed

(7,865 posts)
14. I really like this idea an awful lot.
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 09:48 AM
Oct 2015

Which probably means I should question it.

Still, the occurence of other "big bangs" makes the event a repeating, non-singular event, which was my biggest problem with the big bang in the first place.

 

cpwm17

(3,829 posts)
16. The big bang certainly happened
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 09:59 AM
Oct 2015

but you are right about it not being a singular event. It would be impossible for the big bang to come from of nothing, since nothing can't producing anything. Plus nature doesn't produce things in ones. A single big bang would be impossible.

Nature has order and is predictable. If things only happen in ones, that would destroy science. But science does work.

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
17. ''.. Just one free miracle '',,,,,Terence McKenna
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 10:01 AM
Oct 2015

Terence McKenna

From the speech
The Importance of Human Beings



Every model of the universe has a hard swallow. What I mean by a hard swallow is a place where the argument cannot hide the fact that there’s something slightly fishy about it. The hard swallow built into science is this business about the Big Bang. Now, let’s give this a little attention here. This is the notion that the universe, for no reason, sprang from nothing in a single instant. Well, now before we dissect this, notice that this is the limit test for credulity. Whether you believe this or not, notice that it is not possible to conceive of something more unlikely or less likely to be believed! I mean, I defy anyone – it’s just the limit case for unlikelihood, that the universe would spring from nothing in a single instant, for no reason?! – I mean, if you believe that, my family has a bridge across the Hudson River that we’ll give you a lease option for five dollars! It makes no sense. It is in fact no different than saying, “And God said, let there be light”. And what these philosophers of science are saying is, give us one free miracle, and we will roll from that point forward – from the birth of time to the crack of doom! – just one free miracle, and then it will all unravel according to natural law, and these bizarre equations which nobody can understand but which are so holy in this enterprise.

http://www.matrixmasters.net/podcasts/TRANSCRIPTS/TMcK-ImportanceHumanBeings.html

mn9driver

(4,412 posts)
20. Interesting essay, but it mischaracterizes how we got to the Big Bang idea.
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 10:41 AM
Oct 2015

Lines of evidence:

http://www.universetoday.com/106498/what-is-the-evidence-for-the-big-bang/

"What" happened isn't really much in doubt. "Why" it happened and what was going on "before" (a meaningless term since time wasn't the same); lots of room for conjecture there, since the Big Bang is the origin of what we can observe.

Looking at ripples at the edge of the universe is cool because it has the potential to let us see evidence of "before".

qazplm

(3,626 posts)
27. but we know you can get something out of nothing
Sat Oct 31, 2015, 11:21 PM
Oct 2015

virtual particles.

So long as the nothing gets paid back so to speak no biggie.

The universe will eventually go back to nothingness as the last particles decay...it's just going to take a really long time, but eventually it will pay back that debt.

 

cpwm17

(3,829 posts)
15. "Everything that can happen has happened – and will probably happen again."
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 09:50 AM
Oct 2015

Last edited Thu Oct 29, 2015, 12:47 PM - Edit history (2)

which inevitably leads to the conclusion that all of our conscious-selves will be repeated an infinite number of times, and will always exist, in a multiverse in infinite size and time. So reincarnation must happen, except there is no soul and memories are destroyed each time you die.

It would be impossible to only exist in a single finite period of time in an infinite (in time) multiverse, since a finite number divided by an infinite number equals zero (finite #/infinite # = 0), which would be the chances of living at a particular period of time in an infinite universe (or multiverse). In an infinite multiverse (in size) each conscious-self must always exist, since everything that is possible must always exist.

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
21. Did the title make anyone else wonder if this was an Onion piece about Ceres?
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 11:28 AM
Oct 2015

Did I feel silly when I clicked on it..

Utopian Leftist

(534 posts)
22. In one of Einstein's theories,
Thu Oct 29, 2015, 08:10 PM
Oct 2015

the one in which he correctly predicted the existence of black holes, he also predicted that at the end of every black hole lies a parallel universe.

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Science»Mystery bright spots coul...