PLoS ONE Publishes Cosmology "Breakthrough"

[mistermack]

I neither affirm nor deny it, fuckwit, thus I'm not challenging you to list anything, I simply challenge you to fucking own your arguments. Getting to that any time soon?

Case proved.

[hackenslash]

So still a 'no' on supporting your assertion then? I'm beginning to suspect that you don't actually know what an ad hominem is.

[pErvinalia]

I'm challenging you to support your assertion, which should be an absolute breeze, given your assertion that there are 'lots' of instances.

Whenever you're ready...

MM doesn't do facts and evidence. He only does "opinion".

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I'm challenging you to support your assertion, which should be an absolute breeze, given your assertion that there are 'lots' of instances.

Whenever you're ready...

MM doesn't do facts and evidence. He only does "opinion".

...and Dallas, allegedly.

[Brian Peacock]

I should also point out, for completeness, that dark energy doesn't have to accelerate massive objects, and in fact it doesn't do so. The massive objects are actually sitting (relatively) still in space, while the space between them expands.

A little part of me expanded in the dark recently. Funnily enough, I came up with a solution as well.

[pErvinalia]

[trdsf]

What does space expand into? Not trying to be a smartarse here, just asking you and/or XC to explain it to me.

It's not that it expands into anything, it just expands. It's not an easy image to get; it doesn't help that most programs on cosmology that cover the Big Bang show it as if looking at it from the outside, and there is no outside. That's not easy to show on a TV screen, though.

I tried explaining it to a friend using the 'raisin bread' analogy once, without success:

Me: So it's like the raisins in the rising dough, all expanding away from each other.
He: But it's expanding into the kitchen.
Me: No, the dough is all there is. There is no kitchen.
He: Then it's expanding into the back yard.
Me:

[JimC]

Space expands into no-space...

[Sean Hayden]

He: Then it's expanding into the back yard.

[Hermit]

What does space expand into? Not trying to be a smartarse here, just asking you and/or XC to explain it to me.

It's not that it expands into anything, it just expands. It's not an easy image to get

Yeah, well, when I was about ten or so I was told that the stars are spread throughout the universe, that the universe is all that exists, and that though the stars are an incredibly long distance away from us, they keep getting more distant. That night I looked up at the sky. Three spirals of the Milky Way were clearly discernible. I thought: "All those stars are getting away from us. What lies beyond this universe that they are getting into?" Seems like 50-odd years later I still have the mind of a ten year old kid.

[mistermack]

I think humans might be incapable of understanding the answer to that question. Because it involves infinity.
The concept of nothing involves infinity because we are not just talking about nothing, but infinitely nothing. Not even any dimensions. So distances and angles don't exist and time doesn't pass.

Maybe the universe isn't expanding at all. Maybe everything inside it is just shrinking.

[trdsf]

Yeah, well, when I was about ten or so I was told that the stars are spread throughout the universe, that the universe is all that exists, and that though the stars are an incredibly long distance away from us, they keep getting more distant. That night I looked up at the sky. Three spirals of the Milky Way were clearly discernible. I thought: "All those stars are getting away from us. What lies beyond this universe that they are getting into?" Seems like 50-odd years later I still have the mind of a ten year old kid.

Current theories of cosmology admit to the possibility of a multiverse and our universe is embedded in that, so there may be a higher-dimensional space for the universe to expand into, but I find eleven-dimensional space to be as hard on the ol' gray cells as trying to imagine absolute nothingness "outside" the expanding universe.

I tell you, modern physics causes vertigo...

[Brian Peacock]

Sit down and take a pill. Our universe is inflating, it may be the only domain in town or it may be one among countless others all within some wider domain. It doesn't make much difference to the price of carrots in the end.

[JimC]

Sit down and take a pill. Our universe is inflating, it may be the only domain in town or it may be one among countless others all within some wider domain. It doesn't make much difference to the price of carrots in the end.

Inflation will have an effect, though...