[ExI] Who's stealing our universe?

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Wed Sep 24 13:39:19 UTC 2008


BillK writes

> <http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/dark_flow.html>
> 
> Using data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP),
> scientists have identified an unexpected motion in distant galaxy
> clusters. The cause, they suggest, is the gravitational attraction of
> matter that lies beyond the observable universe.
> 
> WMAP data released in 2006 support the idea that our universe
> experienced inflation. Kashlinsky and his team suggest that their
> clusters are responding to the gravitational attraction of matter that
> was pushed far beyond the observable universe by inflation. "This
> measurement may give us a way to explore the state of the cosmos
> before inflation occurred," he says.
> 
> (Includes links to the original papers).

Not unreasonable, or---so far as I can see (pun not intended)---
at all mysterious, but rather to be fully expected.

> So, something outside the bubble of our universe, is sucking our stuff
> towards itself?

Don't confuse the "bubble" of our universe with the observable
universe, (and naturally not the latter with the homogenous
extend of a much smaller volume). For all we know---and Tipler
and others so believe---our universe is infinite. We only get to
see the infinitesimal region that light has had time to get across.
But if some other guys are about 21 billion ly away, then we're
half way to the *edge* of what they can see, and they ought
not be surprised if a religious prophet were to tell them that
off in our direction was matter affecting visible matter in that
direction. The prophet would be right!

According to the brilliant April 2003 Scientific American article
by Tegmark (which is on-line but I don't have the link right now),
our "bubble" is indeed infinite. I believe it to be common to refer
to our bubble as infinite.

> It's not just a financial crisis, the whole universe is going down the plughole.

Huh? As I understand it Freddie and Fanny have influence only
out to about 8,000 ly, and even the U.S. Federal government
only a few times that, so the whole universe is still relatively safe.

Lee




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