By apsmith, Section News
Posted on Thu Jul 21, 2005 at 09:48:29 AM PST
The August issue of Scientific American carries an interesting article "Is the Universe Out of Tune?", by
Glenn Starkman and
Dominik Schwarz, on some mystifying results from studies of the
Cosmic Microwave Background. The
COBE and more recent
WMAP satellite observations have shown detailed agreement between the high-spatial-frequency variations in the background radiation and a standard "inflationary lambda cold dark matter" model of the origin of our universe. However, the low-spatial-frequency components, the variations in background radiation over large angles in the sky, turn out to be much lower than expected.
In fact, these components (quadrupole and octopole) may actually be zero, since the measured values show correlations with the orientation of our solar system and galaxy. Starkman and Schwarz present this as something of a mystery - however it's possible the explanation lies in
"new physics", or in
a finite universe with unusual topology - or
maybe it just means inflation is wrong. The information in the article isn't particularly new but is presented in a very accessible form, and does make it clear it's an interesting mystery, something we still don't understand about this universe we live in.
links para partes sublinhadas do texto no site:
http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2005/7/20/232626/229
Tópico: Problems in cosmology (Lida 562 vezes)