New Big Bang Data - ESA

[enorbet2]

I was watching BBC News and saw that July 4th may have ended on the biggest bang possible, the release of the first full images from ESA's Planck Telescope. It's resolution is 5 times that of WMAP and ripples are clearly visible that were unimagineable in WMAP. I'll be glad when the Monroe Doctrine like stance of the Bush administration gets actually washed away by the more global mentality expressed in recent official Science doctrine, since I've yet to see anything in depth on US channels.

 

It will be interesting if and what structure Joao Magueilo sees in this and how that reflects on Inflation and The Singularity. There's sure to be controversy between he and Lee Smolin which will be entertaining as well as enlightening. I'm not sure what to make of Mishio Kaku's statements saying it may be possible to now "see" before the Big Bang. Maybe he's trying to hype up interest or maybe, given he specializes in String Theory and M Theory, that "when all you have are nails, everything starts looking like a hammer".

 

Whatever else a New Age of Astronomy is certainly upon us as a wave of new, imaginiative telescopes follow in the HST's footsteps. Isn't it ironic that looking into the very large improves out view of the very small and it possibly doesn't get any smaller than the unimaginneably small Planck Scale, but I suppose "seeing" at that level is 1.000 years off.

 

Whatever else, it appears so far that another feather in Big Bang's cap has arrived.

[freeztar]

There is a vague story on space.com at the following link:

SPACE.com -- New Sky Map Could Help Reveal How Universe Formed

 

I also saw a video on yahoo finance of all places. I've yet to hear of any conclusions drawn from the data so far. Just news about how awesome it will be. :rolleyes:

[enorbet2]

Greetz

Certainly it is too soon for any remarkable conclusions yet even though 5 times the WMAP resolution is a rather big step, but I think that's exactly the point. Five times the resolution would and did immediately blow Lowell's "Canals of Mars" out of the water, so to speak. On the flip side, although I can't place a resolution number on it, DNA could have obliterated Evolution but it didn't. Ultimately, it supports Evolution on a level Darwin couldn't even dream.

 

That nothing big immediately popped out to work against BBT or even Inflation holds great promise, I think, that while refinements are assured and even perhaps some dead ends reached in some minor areas, the overall concept of BBT and The Standard Model are at base, on solid footing for some time to come.

 

Even though I basically like the guy, I couldn't resist the little poke at Mishio Kaku as representative of the whole String Theory community who are understandably so desperate for any sort of evidence to demonstrate that (and maybe, if) pure Mathematics as a means of deep discovery is not indulging in Philosophy but rather hard Science. .