Space Fan News #13: Before the Big Bang?

Back from vacation and wanted to talk about Conformal Cyclic Cosmology. Back in November, a group announced that they have possibly detected gravity waves from interacting black hole in a universe prior to ours.

Here is the paper:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.3706

And their response to some of the criticism:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1012.1486

BBC News announcement:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11837869

Physics World:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44388

Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_Cyclic_Cosmology

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• big bang
• cyclic
• conformal
• cosmology
• astronomy
• space
• universe

[mjc71189]

Why does anything even exist. Why couldn't there just be nothing at all. Not even energy. Maybe its just impossible for energy not to exist.

How far could we go back in time to reach the absolute beginning. Once it is reached is there anything beyond that?

Perhaps we are in a sub-dimension inside a superior dimension.

[garethkielty]

that would finally end a question ive always had about what was there before the big bang. a universe that is locked in its own circle of life

[sbergman27]

There's a problem at 03:25 . This is not a low entropy state. It's the maximum possible entropy state for the universe. Complete thermal equlilibrium. What Penrose claims he can do is apply some mathematical magic, using only GR if I understand correctly, to make the entropy all go away. If you don't really understand it, you are in good company. Sean Carroll has read the book, and doesn't understand it either. And of course, Penrose's CMB find has been very strongly challenged.

[meatfactory]

If you think about it from all the scientific data up to date this theory is actually quite plausible!

[Anduy]

This is not something new. The idea of a universe that is infinite in time has existed long ago. Stephen Hawking somehow disproved it. I don't know how but he did. Maybe he was wrong.

[xshoreLS1]

I just saw this for the first time. It only raises so many more questions and hypotheticals. I reflect on how far we have come in our technological phase, ie last 200 years? I think the only reason the universe would have re-banged is if (a) we evolved to other dimension and let the universe continue in its cycle, or (b) we became all knowing and let it continue it's cycle. is there a hidden message in these grav waves?

[nuclearpuddin]

Wow i feel so smart now i had the theory of the universe repeating even before i knew about the theory.

[MrAwesomesauce101]

A universe still had to start from nothing which means at one point there was nothing at all for an infinite amount of time then the big bang happened. If the cycle does exist than we can see how many times this cycle has gone and what happened in the previous cycles. What I'm saying is something had to come from nothing.

[awdawdwdwadwad]

Just letting you know the cosmic microwave background dates back NOT to the very begining of our universe but 350 000 000(around then) years after the big bang when the pulse of light was emitted through the cosmos. kk. i do like your videos though :)

[THCIFilms]

does the duck phone quack when it rings?