More Matt Strassler (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, March 17, 2014, 14:12 (3904 days ago)

He describes the universe as part of an eternal 'something'. He is a string and multiverse enthusiast, but infirmative and intersting:-http://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/relativity-space-astronomy-and-cosmology/history-of-the-universe/inflation/-"Let me say again: the space expanded. Things didn't rush into the space: the space simply became much larger. It's not one bit like an explosion. Click here to read more about the difference between an explosion of something into space and an expansion of space itself.
 
"How insane is this rate of expansion? A patch of the universe no larger than your computer screen expanded to the size of the observable patch of the universe, or larger, in less than the time it takes for a quark to cross from one side of proton to the other. I won't even bother to tell you the numbers, partly because we don't actually know how long inflation lasted, but also the numbers are too big in size and too small in time for humans to think about them. Basically, a giant chunk of universe was created from a tiny one almost instantaneously.
 
"What was the universe like during the period of this expansion? Empty. Extremely empty. Much, much, much emptier than space is now. Extremely cold. Extremely dark. Anything which might have been there before inflation started would have been pulled apart and dragged to great distances in an instant.
 
"What happened before inflation, and how inflation got started, we don't know. There are a number of reasonable scientifically-grounded theoretical ideas, but they're all speculation until someone thinks of a way to test them by making measurements. There may not even have been a "before inflation", either because inflation is always going on somewhere in the universe, or because time doesn't really make any sense if you go back too far, or for some other reason. But in many contexts it almost doesn't matter, as I'll now explain through a set of figures, answering some frequently asked questions along the way."