Universe's Big Bang Afterglow

From what i read elsewhere, the picture obtained dates to about 300,000+ years after the ostensible "big bang," a mere moment on the celestial time line . . . fascinatin' stuff . . .

Fudge Factor
4% atoms, 23% dark matter, and 73% dark energy.

Dark energy... something that Einstein created as a "fudge factor" to keep the universe from collapsing in his equations. He later disavowed it.
Now it seems, data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe (WMAP) seems to agree with his "fudge factor."

I also, find interesting, the revelation that the universe is geometrically "flat." I have always viewed it as a sphere.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030212.html

What I found really interesting is the parts breakdown: 73 percent dark energy, 23 percent cold dark matter, and only 4 percent atoms.

The dark matter part isn't very interesting because it's probably brown dwarfs and black holes and other such "known" remnants from the world of atoms.

It's the dark energy which is really interesting because we don't have a clue what it is yet. A vast majority of our universe is something we've never seen, and possibly something we don't even know about in theory yet.

It's like if you lived in Oklahoma and had never seen an ocean, and someone told you that 73% of the planet was not made of land like in you were used to. You might think, "if it's not land, what is it? And what affect does it have on the planet, and on my land?"

Regards,

Do my eyes deceive me or is it my old Abuzz friend Rosborne?

I might have known, you're back here at the science scene.

Good to see you again. :wink:

Hi Bib, it's nice to be here. I'm just getting used to the feel of this site format. I'm still using Abuzz, but I saw lots of abuzz names on this site, so I figured I should take some time to get used to its format and see how it works as a discussion board.

Any sign of ccpoodle or pcivannuys over there Ros? If they are, then tell them the science gang is over here. :wink:

The GUI on this board is excellent and the functions are versatile - the team here have done a great job.

Hi Bib,

CCPoodle is still around. I haven't seen a PCivannuys post in a long time however. I'll see if I can lure CC over here

Great! The more the merrier.
It's always good to share and learn from one another

waves to former abuzzers