Astronomers Find a Hole in the Universe

[Sand]

We all know that it is the remnants of the galaxy, that was annihilated when the foolish mortals started to think silly things such as evolution and got interested in sodomy. We're actually the 33rd experiment, and according to the divine plan we have 5 years left if we don't repent.

 

An angel told me this during delirium.

Damnit, leave the Mayans out of this!

[Musopticon?]

I'd rather hope the Mayans aren't involved. My mobile armor is all rusty and out of shape.

 

Aww, there there.

 

*pats the 6-ton steel hulk of a vertical tank*

Edited August 27, 2007 by Musopticon?

[taks]

An angel told me this during delirium.

i'd lay off the mushrooms that grow on cow turds, if i were you.

 

taks

[Colrom]

For Sand - Black holes are no bigger than their effective radius. Light and other stuff can safely pass by or orbit around. So there would be signals from stuff going by or from behind it.

 

I'm kinda reassured. Things have condensed. If statistical variations apply it makes sense that some places should be void. Sp this is further evidence of expected statistical variation and that statistical thermodynamics is still a viable model.

[Tale]

You know, you guys disappointment. I spat out a Red Dwarf line almost verbatem and no one caught it.

 

Sad. Just sad.

I would have caught it if I read through the whole thread.

[taks]

For Sand - Black holes are no bigger than their effective radius. Light and other stuff can safely pass by or orbit around. So there would be signals from stuff going by or from behind it.

indeed, the event horizon.

 

I'm kinda reassured. Things have condensed. If statistical variations apply it makes sense that some places should be void. Sp this is further evidence of expected statistical variation and that statistical thermodynamics is still a viable model.

i think the major point of the article, at least those scientists that contributed to it, is that this void is larger than they expected even considering statistical variation. whether or not this is a valid concern is beyond my understanding of astrophysics, however.

 

taks

[Guest Accept]

It's the mother ruuuuussians...

[Sionn]

OH ****.

[Calax]

Cthulu sleeps there, you can see his pillow.

[metadigital]

I'm kinda reassured. Things have condensed. If statistical variations apply it makes sense that some places should be void. Sp this is further evidence of expected statistical variation and that statistical thermodynamics is still a viable model.

i think the major point of the article, at least those scientists that contributed to it, is that this void is larger than they expected even considering statistical variation. whether or not this is a valid concern is beyond my understanding of astrophysics, however.

There was no mention of the void in my (pretty well up-to-date) physics text book, and (without this observation) we are left theorizing how the universe became so uniform ..!

 

I have a better concept for you, though!

 

*runs around the house looking for long-protected glossy brochure*

 

it is a small booklet (almost a pamphlet, if we were back in the dawn of the print age), sent with my last Scientific American subscription, called "Parallel Universes". Not some beardo-weirdo philosobabble, either. Direct observation leads us to the conclusion that, maybe as little as about 10 to the 10^28 meters from where you stand there is an exact doppleganger of you. (We can currently see about 4x10^26 meters, or 42 billion lightyears, of the universe.)

 

Let's do a thought experiment (because I like them).

 

EXAMPLE UNIVERSE

Imagine a two-dimensional universe with space for four particles. Such a universe has 2^4, or 16, possible arrangements of matter. If more than 16 of these universes exist, they must begin to repeat. In this example, the distance to the nearest duplicate is roughly four times the diameter of each universe.

 

4 particles = 2^4 arrangements

 

OUR UNIVERSE

The same argument applies to our universe, which has space for about 10^118 subatomic particles. The number of possible arrangements is therefore 2 to the [power of] 10^118, or approximately 10^118. Multiplying by the diameter of the universe gives an average distance to the nearest duplicate of 10^118 meters.

 

[some figures to make you go "oooh"]

 

10^118 particles [which are approximately] 2x10^-13 meter

2^10^118 arrangements [in our universe that is] 8x10^26 meters

 

This article does use protons for its calculations (which is entirely reasonable, mostly) and therefore assumes that the constituents of hadrons (i.e. quarks and any other sub-subatomic particles that we have not witnessed yet, if they exist) would not make that one proton 2^10^118m away slightly different (flavour, colour charge, SOMETHING!) from its putative double over here in front of us. (Say that one bound up in the Hydrocarbon of the plastic keyboard that your finger is near.)

 

Then the article gets a little weirder ...