On Tuesday, October 4, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded 3 astrophysicists Nobel Prize in Physics. By studying the most distant supernovae known to man, Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Shmidt, and Adam G. Riess discovered that not only is the universe expanding, but the expansion is also accelerating at a constant rate.
However, the two physics teams could not just study any regular supernovae. They had to study a particular type of supernovae, called a Ia supernovae. These incredibly powerful explosions can emit as much light as a whole galaxy, meaning that, hypothetically, they should be of a particular brightness despite being so far away.
In total, the two teams found over 50 distant supernovae, each of them whose light was weaker than would have been expected. The conclusion that both teams reached was that, had the universe's expansion been constant, the teams would have been able to accurately predict the brightness of the supernovae. Therefor, because the stars were dimmer than expected, the universe's expansion is constantly accelerating.
With this new information, do you think it will ever be possible for humanity to know what lies beyond the edge of the known universe?
Honestly, I don't think it will ever be possible for humanity to know what lies beyond the edge of the known universe. Hence the word "known." Beyond that point, the laws of physics we live by could be totally different! I think it's possible we could "find" the edge of the known universe, but I think it would be impossible to penetrate that edge because, well, nothing that exists in the universe has gone beyond that point yet!
ReplyDeleteI think that by the time we could reach the current edge that the new edge of the universe will be so far away that we cannot ever reach it unless we have some amazing break through in technology that allows us to reach it by telaportation or something along those lines.
ReplyDeleteWhat would lie beyond it if the universe contains everything?
ReplyDeleteSean, I once watched a special on Nova about the universe and the what could lie beyond it. The universe has a special shape that is basically edgeless and has only once surface. An example of this is the Klein Bottle, read up on it here: http://www.kleinbottle.com/. In theories, the only way to escape the universe is to enter a separate dimension, which at this point with our technology is impossible.
ReplyDeleteMy question is:
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to view supernovas without the light that is emitted from the initial "umpf"?
Define beyond our universe, because I am assuming we are still trying to define our own universe since it must be accelerating? Maybe then we can find different universes?
ReplyDelete-Jason
@Sean-I have no idea. This is more of a "just state your oppinion type question". In my opinion, reaching the edge of the universe would be like hitting a wall. Looking backwards, you would see all the light coming from what we'd consider the known universe. Looking forwards, you would see only darkness. No matter. No light. Nothing... Kind of a scary thought.
ReplyDelete@J- I think so. I'm not sure, but I think that there is an afterburn where the former star just kind of fizzles out. I'd imagine that there is still light coming off of it, just not as much as there was coming off of it before it exploded.
@Jason- I'm working under the assumption that the universe is defined as everything in existance. Interesting thought, but consider this: if we got to the edge and somehow we found that there was another universe, wouldn't it just be considered a part of our own that we didn't know about?