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Could the cosmic background radiation only be the result of many outbursts of energy local to our present observable region? The mechanism for this release of energy might be something of a lesser scale than the purposed Big Bang. Something like a limit being reached for the size of massive bodies, where the definition of a Black Hole may not exactly fit the circumstances.
The analysis of dwarf irregulars was revised and improved when an extensive 21-cm redshift survey of dwarf galaxies was published by J. Richard Fisher and R. Brent Tully. Once the velocity of the solar system was accounted for, the irregulars in the Fisher-Tully Catalogue displayed an extraordinary clumping of redshifts. Instead of spreading smoothly over a range of values, the redshifts appeared to fall into discrete bins separated by intervals of 24 km per second, just 1/3 of the original 72 km per second interval. The Fisher-Tully redshifts are accurate to about 5 km per second. At this small level of uncertainty the likelihood that such clumping would randomly occur is just a few parts in 100,000.
Since it is dark you can deduce that either there's something very odd about our bit of the universe (ie it's the only bit in an infinite space that happens to have stars) or that the universe is finite in time, space or both.This was figured out centuries ago, but I can't remember to whom the deduction is usually attributed.
If the star along a particular line of sight has burned out then it doesn't matter- we will see the light from an older star behind it.
Please provide some evidence for the assertion that "Empty space converts energy to matter."
Good point, an infinitely old universe would have reached thermodynamic equilibrium by now. Ours isn't at equilibrium therefore it's not infinitely old.
I know there's a theory that everything must eventually reach equilibrium. I'm not sure that applies to the universe.But with my run of wrong thinking lately, I don't feel too confident about anything right now[]
I think though that Olbers paradox can be disposed of. The amount of energy per unit of spacial area doesn't increase because the same amount of energy departs as arrives. There is not an infinite amount of energy available.
Quote from: Bored chemist on 26/04/2009 11:51:17If the star along a particular line of sight has burned out then it doesn't matter- we will see the light from an older star behind it.If in the infinite life of our universe an infinite number of burned out stars exist, brown dwarfs, neutron, ect...., how can we see stars beyond them? Wouldn't an infinite number of burned out stars block out this light?
Go out on a clear dark night and look just to one side of the moon at a patch of dark sky.If the universe were infinite and static then there would (if you went far enough) be a star in your line of sight and so it wouldn't be dark.
Go out on a clear dark night and look just to one side of the moon at a patch of dark sky.If the universe were infinite and static then there would (if you went far enough) be a star in your line of sight and so it wouldn't be dark.Since it is dark you can deduce that either there's something very odd about our bit of the universe (ie it's the only bit in an infinite space that happens to have stars) or that the universe is finite in time, space or both.This was figured out centuries ago, but I can't remember to whom the deduction is usually attributed.
Quote from: Bored chemist on 25/04/2009 16:40:29Go out on a clear dark night and look just to one side of the moon at a patch of dark sky.If the universe were infinite and static then there would (if you went far enough) be a star in your line of sight and so it wouldn't be dark. The furthest stars we know of are not visible to the human eye. The red shift is so grate they can only be seen with infra-red detectors. It may simply be the microwave radiation in the background is the furthest stars ever detected. Maybe the light is so far shifted it is no longer light.EDIT: Never mind I now see the error in my judgement. The red shift is the slow down of light and a microwave is in the wrong direction. I will admit it was a stupid mistake.
Anyway, if there's a red shift then it's because the universe is expanding so it's not static.(and, the fact that it was Olber has already been established)
If that were a good case (and I don't think it is) then the electrons would now have robbed so much energy (after an infinite time bathed in radiation) that they would be very hot and so they would glow too.
"There is only a finite amount of energy in a finite area of the universe."That's exactly my point.There's a finite amount of stuff in, for example, the solar system. If there are an infinite number of stars out there warming up that finite bit of stuff why isn't it infinitely hot?