The Expanding universe; or Does it? (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, September 29, 2011, 20:09 (4782 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: This paper suggests there are other reasons for an illusion of expansion:-http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44690771/ns/technology_and_science-science/-And 'dark flow' is part of it.-Here we go again with another sensational theory that might possibly knock the cosmos for six, but then again might not. It doesn't suggest, though, that expansion is an illusion ... the illusion is acceleration. If this really is illusory, we don't need 'dark matter/energy' to explain the inexplicable. Good. So although until yesterday 95% or 96% of the universe apparently consisted of 'dark matter/energy', now it doesn't. But do we now know what the unknown 95% or 96% consists of? No we don't. It's all very confusing for us poor laymen.-In terms of the end of the universe, it's great to hear that the Big Rip could be out, but I do wish the authors had said a few nice things about the Big Crunch or the Big Bounce, because these fit in far better with expansion/contraction. And if we look back rather than forward, an oscillatory universe surely throws a few question marks against the big bang theory (which was about to be discredited a few months ago, but the new theory somehow disappeared from the headlines). It seems to me that if acceleration is an illusion based on faulty deductions, the big bang could also be an illusion based on faulty deductions. Who knows, maybe soon someone will justify David's headline and prove that expansion itself is an illusion. Then we can all go back to Hoyle's steady state, forget about multiverses, and settle for the eternal universe which some folk call a cop-out. I'm looking forward to next week's world-shaking theory ... but thank you, David, for keeping us all so well informed. (That is not meant ironically!)