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Originally Posted by pmrid
Some late-hours musings. Is it argued or hypothesised that the singularity contained all that would become the present and expanding universe including the non-baryonic dark matter and/or dark energy? And a further question-without-notice: "Is dark matter expanding and accelerating along with the rest of us baryonic beasties? Or is dark matter itself a medium through which expansion is happening? "
The thought that gave birth to these questions was what, if anything was öutside" that watermelon before the expansion began - before the bang. Was dark matter compressed within the watermelon or was the melon enclosed within a medium comprising that which we have been calling dark matter etc? I guess I am exhibiting the ignorance of the untrained here. But that's the way it is.
Peter
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Hi Peter I did not sleep on your questions I only saw them just now but I must say I dont know the answers.
I think mainstream has it that the singularity, which is the point where the maths breaks down as I understand it, is all there was and the big bang theory explains its evolution not its creation. My understanding of the theory has it that time and space began a split second before but there was nothing other than this singularity... No outside it was all that was to become everything.. Space and time are not dealt with at any earlier point.
The singularity is the Universe it is not contained in any medium there is no outside.
It then goes thru "inflation" growing to pretty well its current size in a split second. Further expansion followed over the following 13.6 billion years but that expansion would seem to me negligable in comparision to the inflationary instant. The time for inflation is mind numbingly short. The growth rate beyond comprehension for my little mind.
The big bang avoids the instant before inflation and leaves open the question of where and how the singularity appeared although there has been speculation from mainstream supporters that there was "quantum fluctuations" and that it was the ultimate free lunch. Or it came from nothing... So conveniently leaving creation out of the theory.
Personally I dont like the theory of inflation simply because my little mind can not imagine the growth rate suggested. I can not accept that the Universe could grow from zip to practically all, well it grew to more than what we see today which is our observable Universe, in a split second. I can not imagine a pin head growing to the size of the Earth, the solar system or the galaxy in under a second and I can not accept the Universe evolved this way. Nevertheless that is our current model and one must accept it will stand until a better model is presented that is how science works. Personally I find it hard to accept but I must while we wait for a better model.
Nevertheless without inflation theory the big bang theory would seem to fail as without that approach the theory seems that it must fail. Inflation was added to explain the sameness of the Universe.
I am not sure but I think our observable Universe is some 100 billion light year diameter but that just means that part of the Universe we can "see" and mainsream has it there is much more that is beyond our observation.
And to return to the matters raised in the op if we deal only with the observable Universe its observed size is enormous, we can quantify its size but I doubt if a human can grasp the enormity. So could it be the only life found is only us?
And there is more Universe beyond what we can observe arguably more than we observe possibly infinite... Well infinite would seal the deal life even inteligent life will be infinite..
We will never know but to think we are it demands a determination to avoid really addressing the numbers.
Someone said if we are it than the Universe has a lot of wasted space.
Alex
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), this is what is typically referred to as the Big Bang. So it refers to a localised part of space of a particular size. Whether that is the entire universe at its birth or if it was infinite and an infinite amount of those watermelon sized areas rapidly expanded... We'll never know.
