Re: WMAP: New Satellite Data On Universe's First Trillionth Second

WMAP: Foundations of the Big Bang theory
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html


Layman questions:

"The Big Bang Model is a broadly accepted theory for the origin and
evolution of our universe. It postulates that 12 to 14 billion years
ago, the portion of the universe we can see today was only a few
millimeters across."

Why is it only the portion "we can see"? The portion we can see is
surely only a completely arbitrary subset reflecting the conditions of
observation rather than what's actually out there.


"[...] the cosmic microwave background radiation, the remnant heat from
the Big Bang, has a temperature which is highly uniform over the entire
sky. This fact strongly supports the notion that the gas which emitted
this radiation long ago was very uniformly distributed."

If it appears uniform here and 2 billion light years away, does this
not suggest that it isn't homogeneous? Wouldn't you expect it to be
fainter here, after 2 billion years of additional cooling?


"Because the universe has a finite age (~13.7 billion years) we can
only see a finite distance out into space: ~13.7 billion light years.
This is our so-called horizon."

So ... the things we are observing at a distance of 13.7b light years
appear as they were at about the time of the Big Bang? What are we
seeing when we perceive an apparent void beyond that?


"The Big Bang Model does not attempt to describe that region of space
significantly beyond our horizon - space-time could well be quite
different out there."

Why on earth should it be? Unless our understanding of space-time in
the observable field is just as much a function of the conditions of
observation as how it actually is. In other words, the Big Bang Model
is just as easily understood as a model of human thought and
perception, as of the origin of the universe.

.

Relevant Pages
Loading