What is the Universe expanding into..

Do you think there was anything before the big bang?

  • I don't think there was anything before the Big Bang

    Votes: 56 12.5%

  • I think something existed before the Big Bang

    Votes: 200 44.7%

  • I don't think the big bang happened

    Votes: 54 12.1%

  • I think the universe is part of a mutiverse

    Votes: 201 45.0%
  • Total voters
    447
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#6,341
Maybe it's just me. But I was fascinated by 5,000-y-o Stonehenge.

907130d1609544656-universe-expanding-s7-stonehenge-jpg


AFAIK, Stonehenge was the Ancient Druids equivalent of the more modern Large Hadron Collider.

An Eclipse predictor. Every 19 years the same old Saros Eclipses seemed to occur. Magic? No, just Mathematics. 🙂

Anyway, a good Horserace in prospect here.

Interestingly there must have been a Day when everybody gathered together in White Robes to watch the June 21 Sun rise over the Helistone. Nothing happened. Total Eclipse at Dawn. 😕
 
#6,342
system7 said:
Here's the situation, Discopete. 🙂

You are facing a 90 per cent Solar Eclipse. A situation I am familiar with. Seen it twice.

But will you get up early enough to face it?

TBH, I think Bonsai is in the best position, weather-wise.

As your bookmaker, my money is on Kaffiman for the best Image.

But Time will Tell. It may come down to a Vote. 😀
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I'll be using my welding glass for this one. Should be good.

The ancients would have been confounded by that bit of celestial mechanics Steve!
 
#6,343
res07njc said:
If protons/electrons are existing in an organized state, within laws we've discovered, within the same physical law as the rest of the universe (?), how can they maintain their law as elements themselves, if the universe is physically expanding?
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The expansion of the Universe only has any effect where another force, whether gravitational, electromagnetic or nuclear, hasn't yet overcome it.

The reason for this is subtle, and is related to the fact that the expansion itself isn't a force, but rather a rate (km/sec/Mpc).

There is a certain 'escape velocity' between objects - a measure of how tightly or loosely they are bound together.

If the force binding those objects together is greater than the background expansion rate, there will be no increase in the distance between them. If there's no increase in distance, there's no effective expansion.

It's only on the largest scales of all, where all the binding forces between objects are too weak to defeat the Hubble rate, that expansion occurs at all.

This Is Why We Aren't Expanding, Even If The Universe Is
 
#6,345
system7 said:
Look forward to Eclipse pictures from you all.
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Discopete is content to sleep through his Canadian "ring of fire" while I can only hope for a glimpse of a Scottish "crescent sun".

Unfortunately, I am not presently located in the northwest of Scotland where the eclipse will extend 50% across the sun. In Portsmouth, expect only 30%.

I'm not making any observational preparations. However, as has happened in times past, thin cloud may come to my aid in allowing a safe glimpse of the partial eclipse.

The maximum bite out of the sun will occur in the UK at 11.14am BST tomorrow.
 
#6,349
I managed to catch a glimpse of the crescent sun shining through thinning cloud around 11.30am BST. The afterimage took a wee while to clear from my vision - so much for all my health & safety talk! 😉

Subsequently, the sun occasionally emerged through the cloud and I managed to obtain a tiny pinhole image using a hastily improvised Corn Flakes packet - just clear enough to see that the sun was not a complete circle! 😎
 
#6,352
Finally glimpsed a disk of the sun through thinner cloud at 12.20 BST, but it was all over by then I think. Couldn't point the telescope with the lack of shadow, and the pinhole box didn't work either due to lack of contrast.

Did find a live feed from Oslo at the Guardian. Went on until 13.00 there.

The Royal Observatory feed at Greenwich managed a 3 second glimpse through cloud.

Congrats to Ultima Thule in the Eclipse Stakes. 😀
 
#6,353
The setup was quite rudimentary last minute ad hoc using a small piece of aluminum foil with a tiny perforated hole in it held in one hand, random black stuff to project the picture on, and my pocket camera in the other hand. 😀

That tiny light spot is just 1-2 mm and I had to apply some extreme S-curve in post-process to get that contrast.

edit: BTW...I just learned I am a space potato.. as one will find out just after 8 mins.. 🙂

How Arrokoth Shocked NASA Scientists - YouTube
 

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