One of man's greatest achievements (2023 Update)

And the statistical fluctations eventually observed are in agreement with the theory (no other compelling reason why that should be).

Not quite though and in a way that is experimentally distinguishable.

The statistical imprint on the CMB is remarkably in close agreement with the models of how the universe evolved from the initial expansion.

The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

NOBODY likes the John Doe troll's contentless spam.

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has continued to post incorrectly formatted USENET articles that are devoid of content (latest example on Tue, 11 Jan 2022 15:34:06 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srk81e$2e7$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me).

This posting is a public service announcement for any google groups readers who happen by to point out that the John Doe troll does not even follow the rules it uses to troll other posters.

5z9TyXNporKu

There are a couple of other problems with it.

You need both an infinite universe and an infinite amount of time and/or infinite speed of light for the light rays from every star to reach you.

Olbers "paradox" is why the milky way looks brighter than the rest of the sky. In a dark sky you can also see the Andromeda galaxy as a fuzzy blob and in a truly pristine sky Triangulum galaxy too. Binoculars will help.

In those special directions most paths to your eye do intersect with the photosphere of a star. Globular cluster cores in our own galaxy are an even more extreme example where the stellar density is enormous.

47 Tuc is the canonical one for Antipodeans (as are LMC and SMC). Northerners like me have to make do with M13 in Hercules. A decent 10" scope will resolve it to mostly stars. They have very curious thermodynamics and will continue to condense to being every more tightly packed in the centre by flinging the odd star off to infinity.

The problem is that the average distance between average stars is enormous so it is only in very special directions where the stellar density is high enough to see anything like Olber's prediction.

H2G2 got it right! The thing about space is that it is *BIG*. Really **BIG**. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.

Stars come is all shapes and sizes.

Physically big ones can be either on their last legs and red giants or very massive incredibly young and short lived blue giants. The problem for stars is that the heavier they are the hotter they get internally and the faster they burn through all their fuel.

Once you go above the mass needed to actually ignite a star the heavier it is the shorter its lifetime. Essentially it is a candle with ever more internal burning zone the heavier that it gets.

It was summed up rather nicely by a lecture given by one of the world's experts on binary cataclysmic variable stars where one has evolved to a compact object and the other is expanding as it reaches old age.

His talk was titled "Can a young blue giant find lasting happiness in the arms of a degenerate white dwarf?". Spoiler alert - no they can't.

Bigger than Canada?

(ducking)

John ;-#)#

That is not what I wrote. yoe need to get those delusions sorted out first.

Let's face it, the universe is mind boggling either way. I don't see why an infinite universe would be any more so than one that sprung from nothing 13.7 Gyr ago. It's not like the BB idea is without its problems, now is it?

Jeroen Belleman

Incoherent sentence fragment

Babble; out of context, thus completely pointless.

Pointless babble; we've heard this before, thus the quotes.

John Doe has the worst discussion style imaginable.

... and that was just the warmup, now he's up to kindergarten-level taunting.

The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has itself posted yet another incorrectly formatted USENET posting on Wed, 12 Jan 2022 06:34:36 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srlspr$8kf$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me.

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

NOBODY likes the John Doe troll's contentless spam.

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has continued to post incorrectly formatted USENET articles that are devoid of content (latest example on Wed, 12 Jan 2022 06:39:58 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srlt3t$8kf$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me).

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has itself posted yet another incorrectly formatted USENET posting on Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:32:34 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srm3n1$d17$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me.

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has itself posted yet another incorrectly formatted USENET posting on Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:32:43 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srm3nb$d17$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me.

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has itself posted yet another incorrectly formatted USENET posting on Wed, 12 Jan 2022 08:32:54 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srm3nm$d17$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me.

mCIcydz3ODOO

John Doe can't really produce a coherent and relevant responses. Fred Boggs posts vague and derogatory nonsense, and I object to that - sadly I can't do that without pointing out why Fred Boggs is reduced to this kind of Doeful level, which isn't all that complimentary to Fred Bloggs.

John Doe is implicitly claiming that he could do better, which would be an outright lie.

The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And yet, the clueless John Doe troll has itself posted yet another incorrectly formatted USENET posting on Thu, 13 Jan 2022 05:59:58 -0000 (UTC) in message-id <srof4u$f08$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me.

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The John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sdhn7c$pkp$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

And the John Doe troll stated the following in message-id <sg3kr7$qt5$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

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vfnKwF771bFd

It could still be infinite in extent after the Big Bang once you take into account the very rapid exponential expansion.

Or there may be many (an infinite number of?) pocket universes on the next scale up possibly each with their own set of fundamental constants. We happen to be in one of the more interesting ones...

The trouble with infinities popping up in physical theories is that they allow you to explore every conceivable possibility somewhere.

Most people imagine that prior to the Big Bang there was space with nothing in it (not helped by popular science programmes showing an explosion) as opposed to nothing at all - ie no spacetime.

If M-theory proves to be right then Big Bang may just be a stepping stone towards a wider more general theory in higher dimensions. TBH I have my doubts about String Theory ever producing useful results in the experimental world but there is no harm in them trying.

"prior to the Big Bang" - if there was no time, how can the word "prior" even be well-defined?

CH