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Opinion | The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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Almost everyone once thought the big bang was the beginning of everything and started from a singularity. Now we know that there never was any singularity and that cosmic inflation preceded and set up the big bang.
I didn't realize our theories have changed regarding this. Do you have a good source for an idiot like me?
There was a prior state of the universe before the big bang known as "cosmic inflation". This prior state lasted an unknown length of time.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/evidence-universe-before-big-bang/
We also know the now observable universe contained a significant amount of space at the time of the big bang. It was a minimum of 2 meters in diameter, and probably much bigger. Of course, the full universe would have been far bigger.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2021/08/25/how-small-was-the-universe-at-the-start-of-the-big-bang/?sh=7e6c19735f79
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/07/27/there-was-no-big-bang-singularity/
It really feels like a game of forced perspective, in a very literal sense. I think it was prior to Edwin Hubble that we thought certain fuzzy blobs in the sky were nebulae, until the type 1a supernova discovery tweaked our angle of view, the fuzzy blobs turned out to be distant galaxies in their own right, and suddenly the whole damn universe got deeper.
Space is a jerk. It's my favorite. MOAR secrets, pls