Created by pooling data from two telescopes that observe different types of light, the new map revealed that the universe is less "clumpy" than previous models predicted — a potential sign that the vast cosmic web that connects galaxies is less understood than scientists thought.
According to our current understanding, the cosmic web is a gigantic network of crisscrossing celestial superhighways paved with hydrogen gas and dark matter. Taking shape in the chaotic aftermath of the Big Bang, the web's tendrils formed as clumps from the roiling broth of the young universe; where multiple strands of the web intersected, galaxies eventually formed. But the new map, published Jan. 31 as three separate studies in the journal Physical Review D, shows that in many parts of the universe, matter is less clumped together and more evenly spread out than theory predicts it should be.
"It seems like there are slightly less fluctuations in the current universe than we would predict assuming our standard cosmological model anchored to the early universe," co-author Eric Baxter, an astrophysicist at the University of Hawaii, said in a statement.
Spinning the cosmic web
According to the standard model of cosmology, the universe began taking shape after the Big Bang, when the young cosmos swarmed with particles of both matter and antimatter, which popped into existence only to annihilate each other upon contact. Most of the universe's building blocks wiped themselves out this way, but the rapidly expanding fabric of space-time, along with some quantum fluctuations, meant that some pockets of the primordial plasma survived here and there.
The force of gravity soon compressed these plasma pockets in on themselves, heating the matter as it was squeezed closer together to such an extent that sound waves traveling at half the speed of light (called baryon acoustic oscillations) rippled outward from the plasma clumps. These ripples pushed away the matter that hadn't already been drawn into the center of a clump, where it came to rest as a halo around it. At that point, most of the universe's matter was distributed as a series of thin films surrounding countless cosmic voids, like a nest of soap bubbles in a sink.
Once this matter, primarily hydrogen and helium, had sufficiently cooled, it clotted further to birth the first stars, which, in turn, forged heavier and heavier elements through nuclear fusion.
To map out how the cosmic web was spun, the researchers combined observations taken with the Dark Energy Survey in Chile — which scanned the sky in the near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared frequencies from 2013 to 2019 — and the South Pole Telescope, which is located in Antarctica and studies the microwave emissions that make up the cosmic microwave background — the oldest light in the universe.
Though they look at different wavelengths of light, both telescopes use a technique called gravitational lensing to map the clumping of matter. Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object sits between our telescopes and its source; the more that light coming from a given pocket of space appears warped, the more matter there is in that space. This makes gravitational lensing an excellent tool for tracking both normal matter and its mysterious cousin dark matter, which, despite making up 85% of the universe, doesn't interact with light except by distorting it with gravity.
With this approach, the researchers used data from both telescopes to pinpoint the location of matter and weed out errors from one telescope's data set by comparing it to the other's.
"It functions like a cross-check, so it becomes a much more robust measurement than if you just used one or the other," co-lead author Chihway Chang, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, said in the statement.
The cosmic matter map the researchers produced closely fitted our understanding of how the universe evolved, except for a key discrepancy: It was more evenly distributed and less clumped than the standard model of cosmology would suggest.
Two possibilities exist to explain this discrepancy. The first is that we're simply looking at the universe too imprecisely, and that the apparent deviation from the model will disappear as we get better tools to peer at the cosmos with. The second, and more significant, possibility is that our cosmological model is missing some seriously big physics. Finding out which one is true will take more cross-surveys and mappings, as well as a deeper understanding of the cosmological constraints that bind the universe's soap suds.
"There is no known physical explanation for this discrepancy," the researchers wrote in one of the studies. "Cross-correlations between surveys ... will enable significantly more powerful cross-correlation studies that will deliver some of the most precise and accurate cosmological constraints, and that will allow us to continue stress-testing the [standard cosmological] model."
Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.
Reader Comments
We can't even agree on an understanding of what women are.
How the hell would you be able to agree on an understanding of the cosmos.?
That hole must be almost as big as the universe itself.
Academia and the Scientific fraternity once again are found questioning thier own unpalatable nonsense.
If time, matter & space are the three integral components as a part of unified theory of quantum physics/quantum entanglement/gravity etc. regarding time/space continuum that would be a good start to ask who created time, matter & space ?
Since ass-edemia is full of effluvium how are we to figure it out in a system where they control the variables of transmission ?
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.
The calm sea is the Absolute; the same sea in waves is Divine Mother. She is time, space, and causation. God is Mother and has two natures, the conditioned and the unconditioned. As the former, She is God, nature, and soul (humanity). As the latter, She is unknown and unknowable. Out of the Unconditioned came the trinity god, nature, and soul, the triangle of existence...
A bit of Mother, a drop, was Krishna, another was Buddha, another was Christ. The worship of even one spark of Mother in our earthly mother leads to greatness. Worship Her if you want love and wisdom." — Swami Vivekananda, Inspired Talks, July, 1895
Nobody, not even the most rabid Bible-smashing professional atheist can deny that all the forces, principles, and laws observable in nature may be aspects of one bedrock underlying in-form-ation system or implicate order active in all times and places.
It may be conscious, even, or, if not conscious as we are conscious, It may be “intelligent” in some sense. This “trans-personal” (or un-personalized) It is invoked by Lao-tzu.
I would just add, the first clear record of anarchist thought can be traced back to the Taoists in the sixth century B.C. The Tao Te Ching is considered one of the greatest anarchist classics.
Analysis of ancient human mitochondrial DNA from the Xiaohe cemetery: insights into prehistoric population movements in the Tarim Basin, China [Link]
I'm not a keen fan of this clinical nonsense and rigidity of thinking, it tantamount to put up a shut up.
Midst humanity does i suppose need some thing or someone in which to believe or have faith with. Such a longing demonstrates a fragility of the human mind,one that has been programme and shaped by the scheme so as to keep a lid on things.
Earth's ancient history makes a mockery of God, for Alien's and those who stood along side them didn't need such a " patch " in which to make sense of Earth and our universe.
m
Have you come across the "two slit" experiments yet? In every one that I've read the "observation affects the experiment" premise is always confirmed. But no-one knows why.
To add to all the fun: Descartes spent a lot of time "proving" that
1.) The only way we can experience reality is "through our senses."
2.) Our senses are provably & demonstratively imperfect and malleable. (c.f. "reality after 4+ shots of tequila")
Therefore we have no way to claim accurate knowledge of anything based on what we "sense."
So it becomes difficult to discern whether or not we're "making up the entire thing as we go along" or not as we can't even begin to prove that "we" exist in the first place.
I think that they try to dazzle us with brilliance or baffle us with bull shit. Surely Stanley Kubrik’s Moon hoax confession has to resonate somewhere in the Universe ?
Here’s what Planck said:
”Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
― Max Planck, Where is Science Going?
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you,” is the common English translation of the German original, “Der erste Trunk aus dem Becher der Naturwissenschaft macht atheistisch, aber auf dem Grund des Bechers wartet Gott.”
Werner Heisenberg
Here’s what Carl Sagan said:
“We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed - and they're, of course, based upon what we know, which is ourselves and other animals. So we make up stories about how the world was hatched from a cosmic egg or created after the mating of cosmic deities or by some fiat of a powerful being.”
“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.”
If you’re a deep critical thinker that leads to several synapses of thoughts & within that processing of those significant contextual conclusions regarding what it actually means. Especially to a theist.
Imo, it’s like a metaphorical scavenger hunt for truth unraveling the Gordian knot 🪢 or ball of yarn 🧶
Regarding “we don’t really know much” that’s true but conversely, that’s what happens when you trust the wrong people & let them do the thinking for you.
“Trust the Zcience” was the MK Ultra-sequela mantra entrainment idiom during the Live Exercise hoax IIRC.
How’s that mass psychosis working for them now ?
We just saw the Covid hoax fail & Ukraine hoax war both fail miserably. Not sure anyone wants to salvage the sinking ship at this point.
Interesting, a friend and I had talked for the last 20 years about something huge that would happen on the planet in our lifetime, and we were here to observe it. I don't think it's over yet....
In saying that God loves the world, Jesus corrects the ego's vicious tale that He hates it and all it stands for. We would have to believe our Creator hates the world, and us as well, because we made it as an attack on Him (W-pII.3.2:1). The world was our way of thumbing our nose at God, sneering: "I can do you one better. I can make a cosmos-infinite, eternal,, and magnificent. Beat that!" Of course God cannot, because He knows nothing of form or the "grandeur" of celestial bodies. He knows only the grandeur of His celestial Son. Jesus thus undoes the ego's prophesy that He will become as insane as we, lose His patience, and annihilate us and the world (T-26.VII.7).
(1:7) God's Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible.
From A Course in Miracles – Manual for Teachers – 11. How Is Peace Possible in This World?
*
Peace is possible here because "here" is within the mind's Atonement principle. Being a projection, the world is also in the mind. Peace, therefore, must be possible in the world because it is within us. In fact, peace is the mind's only true content, being truth's reflection; everything else is illusion. The Atonement is also an illusion, yet is the final illusion because it corrects all others (M-2.2). Since the world is nothing more than the mind's projection, and the peace of God the mind's only truth, it must be extended to the world.
This passage will make no sense if you try to understand it from the world's perspective. It is not at all unreasonable to wonder if peace is really possible when you look at current events. The ego thought system seems so deeply ingrained in everyone; how are billions of people going to accept the Atonement? The answer is that God's Word of the Atonement has nothing to do with numbers, or time and space. It is true that there will never be peace in the world, because the world was made not to be peaceful but a place where God could not enter (W-pII.3.2:4). Peace is in the mind, and when there is inner peace-because the Atonement has been accepted-the world is gone, since there is no world outside the healed mind. This is why Jesus does not know of it. If there are only thoughts of love and peace, there is no need for a world whose purpose is defense-nothing to defend against, no guilt to protect, no raging God to seek refuge from.Since the body was made to be a limitation on love, which you no longer choose to limit, it is unnecessary as well.
When peace is in your mind, therefore, the world is peaceful. This is why peace is not only possible in this world but a certainty. Whatever conflict or pain is experienced within the dream, including your body, you never forget its unreality. Something can effect you only if you think you are part of the dream. This means that you are never truly upset because of an impending war or cancerous growth, but only because you allowed yourself to return to unreality. No one held a gun to your mind-you entered the dream willingly because you believed it justified, protected, and sustained your existence.
(1:8-12) But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. 9 What the world is, is but a fact. 10 You cannot choose what this should be. 11 But you can choose how you would see it. 12 Indeed, you must choose this.
For there to be peace in the world, you must look at the world differently. The world was made as an attack on God; the body was made as a limitation on love; words were made to keep us separate from truth-these are facts within the illusion. Remember, though, that perception is an interpretation, not a fact. The world is what it is, made to be a place where separation is the "divine" law, individuality sacred, and separate interests inevitable. Nonetheless, you can choose to look at the world differently-as a place in which you learn that you have projected onto it the ego's thought system that had been buried in your mind. In looking at the world differently, therefore, you really look at your mind differently-by choosing a different teacher. Thus you realize the world's only value is as a classroom in which you see your choice of teacher reflected back to you-an outside picture of your inward condition (T-21.in.1:5). The world then becomes helpful and peaceful, because it serves a peaceful purpose.
(3:1-3) The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. 2 These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. 3 And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it.
We believe in the ego thought system, the cornerstone of which is that the separation from God is real. The world is the projection of this belief, which is what makes the ego and its world so real to us. Once that belief is withdrawn, however, the thought system will disappear back "into the nothingness from which it came" (M-13.1:2). This is why the ego strategy is to keep us mindless. If we do not know we have a mind, the belief's we have chosen remain out of awareness and we continue to believe in the go, unable to change thought systems. It is this change we fear, and thus we tenaciously hold to our opinions and judgments, not because of them per se , but because of the separation they represent.
(3:4-6) 4 Into this strange and paradoxical situation,—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible,—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. 5 Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. 6 And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable.
God's Judgement is that His Son is guiltless and innocent. Nothing has changed- "not one note in Heaven's song was missed" (T-26.V.5:4)-and the Holy Spirit is the mind's symbolic reminder of that happy Fact.
12. How Many Teachers of God Are Needed to Save the World?
This section helps students get passed the hundredth-monkey concept, which would mean that a certain number of people are needed to save the world. This quantifiable view of salvation can lead students to believe that the world has to be made aware of A Course In Miracles at the hand of proselytizing teachers and churches in a vigorous attempt to "get the word out," without realizing there is nothing out there to get the word to. It is not that you get the word out, you accept the Word in . The confusion between mind and body is a primary factor in this misdirected zeal, as exemplified by what we have seen of the ego's attempts to reconcile what cannot be reconciled: form with content, mind with body/world. Again, the world does not have to be saved because there is no world.
The answer to the question above is given at the beginning-only one teacher of God is needed to save the world, and this one is you . When you have accepted the Atonement for yourself-not just an intellectual acceptance but an internal integration-there is only one Son. Not a hundred, five hundred, or six billion. One . Your being saved, therefore, heals the Sonship and the projected world along with it. This "one" does not exclusively mean Jesus, although he is an obvious example, but all of us. To say it another way, A Course In Miracles was written for one person- you , and when your mind is healed, the you becomes You . This section, then, returns us to the important theme of the distinction between mind and body.