If you enjoyed my write up on Tegmark's Level II multiverse, you might enjoy this guest post that he makes on Sean Carroll's blog, which includes a link to the chapter on inflation from his book, including those visual aids I referenced! Since the BICEP2 breakthrough is generating such huge interest in inflation, I’ve decided … Continue reading Max Tegmark posts his chapter on cosmic inflation online
Tag: Big Bang
Ugh, really Americans? Poll reveals majority of Americans distrust Big Bang theory
In a new national poll on America's scientific acumen, more than half of respondents said they were "not too confident" or "not at all confident" that "the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with a big bang." via Poll reveals majority of Americans distrust Big Bang theory - UPI.com.
Visualization of ancient cosmological models
Just to keep the discussion of the posts I'm doing on cosmology in context: As part of Topoi 1, Group-D, Sebastian Szczepanski and I developed software for the visualization of ancient cosmological theories. These included the 4th cent. BCE planetary models of Eudoxus, Aristotle, and Calippus, as well as the basic planetary models of Ptolemy’s Almagest. … Continue reading Visualization of ancient cosmological models
xkcd: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing
A few years ago the "it's senseless to ask what came before the big bang because there was no before" meme was hot. I remember Stephen Hawking saying it in his documentary a year or two ago. There now seems to be a good amount of push-back from the rest of the cosmology community to this certitude. … Continue reading xkcd: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing
The cosmological horizon problem answer, I think
Last week, I did a brief post asking if anyone knew why the horizon problem was a problem since the universe had started as an infinitesimally small point. I received a lot of excellent replies, which I'm grateful for. I had a couple of people ask me to post any answer I might eventually find. … Continue reading The cosmological horizon problem answer, I think
Does anyone have a link to a detailed description of the cosmological horizon problem?
So, I'm trying to understand cosmic inflation a bit better, and I've concluded that I don't understand one of the chief itches that it scratches. I know the standard explanation about regions of space being too far apart to have ever interacted, but I don't get why they couldn't have interacted when the universe was … Continue reading Does anyone have a link to a detailed description of the cosmological horizon problem?
PHD Comics: Cosmic Inflation Explained
So, even though I already linked to two sources about cosmic inflation this week, this is good enough that I'm also going to throw it in. It's fascinating to me that the large scale structure of our universe is ultimately caused by quantum fluctuations in the earliest moments of the big bang. Click through for … Continue reading PHD Comics: Cosmic Inflation Explained
Primers on detecting primordial gravity waves and cosmic inflation
First, Minute Physics takes a shot at explaining what the BICEP2 team actually found and how it relates to gravitational waves. I think I'm going to have to watch this a second time to pick up everything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlBNJbCzfk And Ethan Siegel has an in-depth discussion of cosmic inflation at his Starts With A Bang site.
First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation – SpaceRef
Wow! There were lots of rumors about this over the weekend. Turns out that, in this case, the rumors were spot on. Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, … Continue reading First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation – SpaceRef
You say multiverse, I say galaxies
Corey Powell has an interesting post up on what he calls the Four Great Eras of Exploration. The first era was Galileo's discovery of the vastness of the universe, the second that stars were composed of chemical elements, and the third was Hubble's discovery of other galaxies. The fourth, and main topic of his post, … Continue reading You say multiverse, I say galaxies
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