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Is science on the right track

Web Master - David C Ayre

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The Universe

As you might expect, this is a big subject, and you would be right to ask if it really matters to us how it all works. However, it is a very interesting subject and we can’t but help wonder about it. But does it warrant spending vast amounts of tax payers money?

One of the problems that limits our thinking on such matters is our own brain. It has developed over millions of years to allow us to deal with everyday problems that we are likely to encounter on earth, and may not be suited to dealing with the wider picture. One of the problems is that we are unable to visualize infinity. We know what it means but have trouble getting our heads round it. We are used to things having boundaries, and a start and finish. We just can’t imagine that the universe goes on for ever and there is no limit to it. Also, we can’t imaging how the universe could have no beginning. It was always here, but we have to visualize a start to it. Similarly, in antiquity, people thought that the world only extended to the horizon and if you sailed to the edge you fell off. As we were able to see further, the world got bigger and, eventually, so did the universe. It now appears to be a size that is the same as our range of vision. Do people really think that there is nothing beyond this range. It would seem logical that if you moved to the range of our vision there would be as much to see from there as there is from here. In other words, the universe goes on for ever. Why not?

It would seem reasonable that in certain areas of the universe matter would fall in on itself. The natural state seems to be orbiting masses but orbits collapse with time and large masses will inevitably collapse into each other. Now there are all sorts of theories as to what happens when you pile too much mass into one space. Obviously the pressure would be immense and the matter at the core would be compressed unbelievably. We then get so much mass in a relatively small space that the gravitational force is so great that even light cannot escape. This is a Black Hole and gives another example of how gravity reacts with light, reinforcing the arguments about the bending of light rays around a large mass.

What we don’t know about Black Holes is what their limit is. Obviously, the bigger they get, the more matter will be attracted in, even whole galaxies could be swallowed up. Now, as this happens the matter at the centre of the Black Hole will become more and more dense until the atomic sub-particles will be pushed so close that they could possibly be touching. At some point there could be an almighty explosion, throwing matter out in all directions at great speed. Eventually this will condense into single stars and these into new galaxies.

Now the Big Bang theory suggests that this happened once in the not too distant past and that is all the matter that exists in the Universe. But I don’t see why this should be a unique event. This sort of thing could be happening all the time somewhere in the infinite universe, and there is no reason why some of the matter from one expanding system shouldn’t interact with matter from another system. If there were only one expanding system, all matter would be diverging from the initial point of the Big Bang, which makes it hard to explain colliding galaxies which are known about. Isn’t it more likely that these galaxies, moving towards each other, are from different expanding systems?

In nature things tend to be complex rather than simple, the idea of the big bang theory is simple in the extreme. The idea that there was nothing in the universe before the big bang tends to satisfy our requirement for a start and an end. We can accept an infinite universe full of nothing, but the idea that suddenly, for no apparent reason there is an almighty bang and matter appears from nowhere and explodes out in an ever expanding star burst. However, it does satisfy our need for a beginning. But all this matter appearing from nowhere takes a little imagination to accept.

More likely, though it is hard to imagine, there is matter spread out in all directions out to infinity. In other words, there is no end to it. No, I can’t imagine it either, but that is a shortcoming of our brains. Now all this matter is connected by gravitational links causing masses to attract each other, usually ending up in masses orbiting each other, or colliding.

One of the most common sights in the sky (using a big telescope) is the galaxy where billions of stars orbit a central galactic mass which is probably so dense that its mass is enormous. I don’t think there is any way that we can measure the mass of a black hole unless it is by observing the orbital velocities of stars in the galaxy. But for some reason scientist believe they can quantify this mass. Then they are confused when they find that stars in the galaxy are orbiting faster than expected. But rather than question their original thoughts they now invent dark matter to make up the difference. Well, yes, more matter is required, but why not in the black hole at the galactic centre? After all it can contain vast amounts of matter. To my mind, that is the logical answer. Given time, all the stars in the galaxy will eventually be sucked into the black hole. This will take billions of years. No-one knows if it will explode and spread matter out to eventually form another galaxy or if it needs much more matter. If that happens to be the case it might be that many galaxies have to combine to form a black hole capable of exploding to create a new mini-universe.

If the infinite universe is a fact, rather than our little self-contained universe, then many of the assumptions made by scientists will be wrong, as they are based on a universe that is expanding from a single point. For example, the distance away of stellar objects is assumed from its speed away from us. But if everything we can detect is not coming from a big bang at a single point in space, then that assumption will be wrong, for example. And so it goes on. One assumption built upon another, but it doesn’t actually matter as none of this research is of any practical use to us, but it does cost us a lot of money to maintain the research.

Recent developments

Recently, scientists have been looking at the behaviour of stars rotation around the centre of a galaxy and have decided that the outer stars are moving faster that they should be. Now this could be that the mass at the centre of the galaxy is greater than they have calculated. It is a black hole and what goes on inside a black hole is not known - just guessed at. Also, did they take into account the effect of the mass of all the other stars rotating about the centre? Probably not. However, they have now invented ‘Dark Matter’ to solve their problem. Following from this they have further invented ‘Dark Energy’ and ‘Dark Flow’. This is a classic case of Chinese whispers. They have now gone so far down a blind alley that it will be difficult to turn back.

Another trend is talking about multiple universes. This is the stuff of science fiction and should be left there. It may be fun to make all these assumptions, but they are doing it at our expense. Each further assumption they make the more money they need to take it to the next level. This is not a new trend but has always been the case. In history, each establishment view has been found to be wrong and has had to be replaced when better knowledge was achieved. In the field of medicine or engineering this makes for progress, but in the case of the Universe, it gains us nothing.

The Expanding Universe

Astronomers have noticed that the further an object is from us, the faster it is receding, and they assume that these galaxies are accelerating.  They seem to forget that we are measuring their speed as it was in the distant past and it might actually be slowing down.

Galaxies nearer to us are receding less quickly and some are actually moving towards us. This tends to point to orbiting bodies rather that bodies hurtling away.

The simple assumptions are often wrong as things tend to be more complex in the real universe.