Big Bang's Afterglow Fails an Intergalactic Shadow Test

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----------------------------------------------
"And the Nobel Prize for Physics, this year should be taken back."
**********


The apparent absence of shadows where shadows were expected to be is
raising
new questions about the faint glow of microwave radiation once hailed as
proof that the universe was created by a "Big Bang." In a finding sure
to cause controversy, scientists at The University of Alabama in
Huntsville (UAH) found a lack of evidence of shadows from "nearby"
clusters of galaxies using new, highly accurate measurements of the
cosmic microwave background.


A team of UAH scientists led by Dr. Richard Lieu, a professor of
physics, used data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP) to scan the cosmic microwave background for shadows caused by 31
clusters of galaxies.


"These shadows are a well-known thing that has been predicted for
years," said Lieu. "This is the only direct method of determining the
distance to the origin of the cosmic microwave background. Up to now,
all the evidence that it originated from as far back in time as the Big
Bang fireball has been circumstantial.


"If you see a shadow, however, it means the radiation comes from behind
the cluster. If you don't see a shadow, then you have something of a
problem. Among the 31 clusters that we studied, some show a shadow
effect and others do not."


Other groups have previously reported seeing this type of shadows in the
microwave background. Those studies, however, did not use data from
WMAP, which was designed and built specifically to study the cosmic
microwave background.


If the standard Big Bang theory of the universe is accurate and the
background microwave radiation came to Earth from the furthest edges of
the universe, then massive X-ray emitting clusters of galaxies nearest
our own Milky Way galaxy should all cast shadows on the microwave
background.
These findings are scheduled to be published in the Sept. 1, 2006,
edition of the Astrophysical Journal.


Taken together, the data shows a shadow effect about one-fourth of what
was predicted - an amount roughly equal in strength to natural
variations previously seen in the microwave background across the entire
sky.
"Either it (the microwave background) isn't coming from behind the
clusters, which means the Big Bang is blown away, or ... there is
something else going on," said Lieu. "One possibility is to say the
clusters themselves are microwave emitting sources, either from an
embedded point source or from a halo of microwave-emitting material that
is part of the cluster environment.


"Based on all that we know about radiation sources and halos around
clusters, however, you wouldn't expect to see this kind of emission. And
it would be implausible to suggest that several clusters could all emit
microwaves at just the right frequency and intensity to match the cosmic
background radiation."


Predicted as early as 1948 and discovered in 1965, the cosmic microwave
background is a faint glow of weak radiation that apparently permeates
the universe. Because it is seen coming from every direction in nearly
uniform power and frequency, cosmologists theorized that the microwave
background is afterglow radiation left over by the Big Bang that created
the universe.


If that were the case, the background microwave radiation reaching Earth
today would have traveled billions of light years through space from the
furthest edges of the universe.

Galaxy clusters are the largest organized structures in the universe.
Each cluster can contain hundreds of galaxies like the Milky Way, each
with billions of stars. The gravity created at the center of some
clusters traps gas that is hot enough to emit X-rays. This gas is also
hot enough to lose its electrons (or ionize), filling millions of cubic
light years of space inside the galactic clusters with swarming clouds
of free electrons. It is these free electrons which bump into and
interact with individual photons of microwave radiation, deflecting them
away from their original paths and creating the shadowing effect. This
shadowing effect was first predicted in 1969 by the Russian scientists
Rashid Sunyaev and Yakov Zel'dovich.

Like shadow puppets on a wall, however, these shadows would only form
if all three ingredients (light, object and observer) are in the correct
order. If an object casts no shadow, it might be because the light
source is closer to the observer than the object. That might mean that
the cosmic microwave background didn't originate at the far edges of the
universe, although there are no obvious or popular alternative sources.
The WMAP dataset is available to the public and other scientists are
already testing the UAH group's results, Lieu said, although no one has
yet reported finding any flaws in their analysis.


Just over a year ago Lieu and Dr. Jonathan Mittaz, a UAH research
associate, published results of a study using WMAP data to look for
evidence of "lensing" effects which should have been seen (but weren't)
if the microwave background was a Big Bang remnant. Lieu, Mittaz and
Shuang-Nan Zhang, UAH, "The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in a sample of 31
clusters: A comparison between the X-ray predicted and WMAP observed
decrement," Astrophysical Journal, Sept. 1, 2006, Vol. 648, No. 1,
p. 176
Source: University of Alabama Huntsville

Prime

Why should microwaves not going through galactic clusters cause most is
empty space there too ?


"In Fo" <[Only registered users see links. ]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:[Only registered users see links. ].webtv.net...
[Only registered users see links. ]
----------------------------------------------
"And the Nobel Prize for Physics, this year should be taken back."



The apparent absence of shadows where shadows were expected to be is
raising
new questions about the faint glow of microwave radiation once hailed as
proof that the universe was created by a "Big Bang." In a finding sure
to cause controversy, scientists at The University of Alabama in
Huntsville (UAH) found a lack of evidence of shadows from "nearby"
clusters of galaxies using new, highly accurate measurements of the
cosmic microwave background.


A team of UAH scientists led by Dr. Richard Lieu, a professor of
physics, used data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP) to scan the cosmic microwave background for shadows caused by 31
clusters of galaxies.


"These shadows are a well-known thing that has been predicted for
years," said Lieu. "This is the only direct method of determining the
distance to the origin of the cosmic microwave background. Up to now,
all the evidence that it originated from as far back in time as the Big
Bang fireball has been circumstantial.


"If you see a shadow, however, it means the radiation comes from behind
the cluster. If you don't see a shadow, then you have something of a
problem. Among the 31 clusters that we studied, some show a shadow
effect and others do not."


Other groups have previously reported seeing this type of shadows in the
microwave background. Those studies, however, did not use data from
WMAP, which was designed and built specifically to study the cosmic
microwave background.


If the standard Big Bang theory of the universe is accurate and the
background microwave radiation came to Earth from the furthest edges of
the universe, then massive X-ray emitting clusters of galaxies nearest
our own Milky Way galaxy should all cast shadows on the microwave
background.
These findings are scheduled to be published in the Sept. 1, 2006,
edition of the Astrophysical Journal.


Taken together, the data shows a shadow effect about one-fourth of what
was predicted - an amount roughly equal in strength to natural
variations previously seen in the microwave background across the entire
sky.
"Either it (the microwave background) isn't coming from behind the
clusters, which means the Big Bang is blown away, or ... there is
something else going on," said Lieu. "One possibility is to say the
clusters themselves are microwave emitting sources, either from an
embedded point source or from a halo of microwave-emitting material that
is part of the cluster environment.


"Based on all that we know about radiation sources and halos around
clusters, however, you wouldn't expect to see this kind of emission. And
it would be implausible to suggest that several clusters could all emit
microwaves at just the right frequency and intensity to match the cosmic
background radiation."


Predicted as early as 1948 and discovered in 1965, the cosmic microwave
background is a faint glow of weak radiation that apparently permeates
the universe. Because it is seen coming from every direction in nearly
uniform power and frequency, cosmologists theorized that the microwave
background is afterglow radiation left over by the Big Bang that created
the universe.


If that were the case, the background microwave radiation reaching Earth
today would have traveled billions of light years through space from the
furthest edges of the universe.

Galaxy clusters are the largest organized structures in the universe.
Each cluster can contain hundreds of galaxies like the Milky Way, each
with billions of stars. The gravity created at the center of some
clusters traps gas that is hot enough to emit X-rays. This gas is also
hot enough to lose its electrons (or ionize), filling millions of cubic
light years of space inside the galactic clusters with swarming clouds
of free electrons. It is these free electrons which bump into and
interact with individual photons of microwave radiation, deflecting them
away from their original paths and creating the shadowing effect. This
shadowing effect was first predicted in 1969 by the Russian scientists
Rashid Sunyaev and Yakov Zel'dovich.

Like shadow puppets on a wall, however, these shadows would only form
if all three ingredients (light, object and observer) are in the correct
order. If an object casts no shadow, it might be because the light
source is closer to the observer than the object. That might mean that
the cosmic microwave background didn't originate at the far edges of the
universe, although there are no obvious or popular alternative sources.
The WMAP dataset is available to the public and other scientists are
already testing the UAH group's results, Lieu said, although no one has
yet reported finding any flaws in their analysis.


Just over a year ago Lieu and Dr. Jonathan Mittaz, a UAH research
associate, published results of a study using WMAP data to look for
evidence of "lensing" effects which should have been seen (but weren't)
if the microwave background was a Big Bang remnant. Lieu, Mittaz and
Shuang-Nan Zhang, UAH, "The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in a sample of 31
clusters: A comparison between the X-ray predicted and WMAP observed
decrement," Astrophysical Journal, Sept. 1, 2006, Vol. 648, No. 1,
p. 176
Source: University of Alabama Huntsville

Prime

In Fo wrote:

???


<snip>


And in physics, when a prediction does not match the evidence, we
*don't* throw out the evidence, especially when it is independently
replicated.

The mechanism for the creation of 'shadows' in the CMBR needs to be
reassessed.

"Circumstantial" regarding evidence in physics means, "I see it and
agree it is there, but I don't think it means what you think it means."


Tom Davidosn
Richmond, VA

Dear Josef Matz:

"Josef Matz" <[Only registered users see links. ]> wrote in message
news:452a02c1$0$13101$[Only registered users see links. ]...


I agree. The fact that they find shadows behind some objects
seems to me to be the anomaly they need to explain.

Gravitational lensing will direct about as much light toward you
as away from you. Two edge diffraction will additionally smear
light around objects, such that many millions of light years
away, it could appear such that there was nothing in the
foreground (or was co-located).

David A. Smith