Protons may decay, dark matter particles may be annihilated, there may be occasional flashes when black holes evaporate—and then silence. What might be different in this case is that the authors—Nhat-Minh Nguyen, Dragan Huterer and Yuewei Wen, all at the University of Michigan—didn’t set out to solve the problem of the S8 tension. They were interested in whether the history of the universe’s expansion was consistent with the history of structure growth.
Areas of study
This happened in 1929, when Edwin Hubble measured the redshift of distant galaxies. If the velocities increased with distance, some grains would finally end up so far away from each other that they would be receding at velocities approaching the speed of light.
As farming people, trees play an important role in Serer religious cosmology and creation mythology. The Serer high priests and priestesses chart the star Sirius, known as “Yoonir” in the Serer language and some of the Cangin languages. This star enables them to give accurate information as to when Serer farmers should start planting seeds among other things relevant to Serer lives and Serer country. “Yoonir” is the symbol of the universe in Serer cosmology and creation mythology.
Is there a crisis in cosmology?
Some physicists argue for the block universe, that the passing of time is an illusion. It could be that the universe eternally cycles between expansion and collapse and that a new timeline begins each cycle. In that case, an infinite amount of time never passes and in fact a time line containing an actual infinite never existed .
To be wrong is to learn that the universe is more interesting than they thought. “We’re right on the cusp of this being the coolest thing ever,” says Scolnic. Many researchers await more precise CMB measurements that could kill, or validate, the many inflation models that still stand. Other physicists, however, don’t see the cosmos’s smoothness as a problem at all — it started off uniform and needs no explanation. Regardless of its name, the Big Bang theory found widespread acceptance for its unparalleled ability to explain what we see. The balance of light with particles like protons and neutrons during the first 3 minutes, for instance, let early elements form at a rate predicting the current amounts of helium and other light atoms.
“The Big Bang is a really bad term,” said Paul Steinhardt, a cosmologist at Princeton. “The Big Stretch would capture the right idea.” The mental image of an explosion causes all kinds of confusion, according to Steinhardt. It implies a central point, an expanding frontier, and a scene where light shrapnel flies faster than heavier chunks. There’s no center, no edge, and galaxies large and small all slide apart in the same way .
I said that on a scale of betting my goldfish, my dog or my life, I was nearly at the dog level. Andrei Linde, who had spent 25 years promoting eternal inflation, said he would almost bet his life. Later, on being told this, physicist Steven Weinberg said he would happily bet my dog and Linde’s life. Linde, my dog and I will all be dead before the question is settled. Data collected using Webb was combined with information from Cassini-Huygens (a Saturn-specific mission) and Hubble to refine our understanding of the seasonal change.
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