A Hole in the Universe

[Pleminius]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/hole-in-universe.htm

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...huge_hole.html

A couple of interesting articles I came across. Any theories as to why it is there or what it may mean?

[David Deas]

It means God. Thats just God's spot for himself to chill without planets bothering him.

[Zodiac]

Ummmm something pushed galaxies away from it's center long ago? The fact is no-one really has a solid explanation.

[Pleminius]

That's the point. This is a thread for speculation.

Perhaps this was the spot where the big bang happened, and the universe is being pushed away from it?

Perhaps a catastrophic explosion wiped everything out?

Any theories welcome.

[Zodiac]

Maybe Sides if the universe are connected somewhat by Gravity and is slowly moving around Like continents and this is like a sea or ocean?

[Medicus]

MASSIVE ****ING BIG BLACK HOLE.

[Spurius]

Nope, they rule that out in the article, if you care to read it.

BTW the Universe has no centre, in the traditional sense:

http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/ph...GR/centre.html

Also remember technically, it's not a physical hole (yet), that's just the most likely explanation for photons 'misbehaving', so a hole is what gets reported to the sensors. It's a blind spot, no real telling what's there.

Doesn't make it any less puzzling.

[Bokks]

Maybe it's a universal "pole", or something akin to the dead-zones in Siberia.
It could be as simple as saying that matter never migrated into the area, although asuming the images are correct, the fact that it's circular is surprising.
I've heard of voids before, but the size is unsettling.
It seems like, though, there are similar things on earth, places that things just don't happen at, for whatever reason. There are places in the oceans that for one reason or another fish don't swim through, there are seas where biologic matter doesn't survive (well, those are explained by large amounts of poison gases, but you get the idea). Plus, as one of the articles said, we don't know what black-matter is, it could be that this void is some magnetic anamoly.
Or it could be the "doorway" to an "alternate dimension".
When a lot of the astronomers I've met have been asked what the universe is growing into if it's growing, they said that the universe could be ring-shaped growing into itself by bending into a fourth dimension, maybe that's where it is. Since we, being 3-D creatures, would never see or detect something that bends into and exists in a higher dimension, we'd percieve that area as simply not existing, or not having anything in it.:hmmm:
It would be funny if it was a universal pole, though, to think the the universe spins and has an axis just like planets. Since everything we have encountered does, though, why would that which everything is in not?

[Spurius]

When a lot of the astronomers I've met have been asked what the universe is growing into if it's growing, they said that the universe could be ring-shaped growing into itself by bending into a fourth dimension, maybe that's where it is. Since we, being 3-D creatures, would never see or detect something that bends into and exists in a higher dimension, we'd percieve that area as simply not existing, or not having anything in it.:hmmm:
It would be funny if it was a universal pole, though, to think the the universe spins and has an axis just like planets. Since everything we have encountered does, though, why would that which everything is in not?

I like your thinking, it's pretty original. A rotation in 4d would indeed seem to disappear along its pole - into nothingness to our senses. I don't think it's very likely though.

Actually, there are some reports from 2004 regarding the CMB findings, there are more known anomalies there, and they are highly suggestive of our OWN solar system tossing a spanner possibly, meaning the noise is much weaker than previously thought, and stuff in our own local backyard distorts the picture... - this could be related.

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=2640

[Bokks]

I like your thinking, it's pretty original. A rotation in 4d would indeed seem to disappear along its pole - into nothingness to our senses. I don't think it's very likely though.

Thanks for the compliment!
I do also agree, it is unlikely, although anything is possible.

That is also a really interesting article. Well, all of the articles you've found have been really interesting...
I myself, however, have never really put much faith in the big bang theory. It is a rather helpful and convenient way to explain the origin of the universe, but there are two big problems: 1) where did this "teaspoon of matter" come from to be so highly packed with all the material in the universe; and 2) What set off the chain reaction that would send matter throughout the universe. There are other problems that arise from these two questions, like what was the matter "in" if it hadn't made the universe yet, and how long did it stay in such a compact state before it made everything and "started time". That is a long time before time that would have been so timeless. (wow, wrap your brains around that one!)
Not to mention that should such matter be compacted into such a small definable area in todays universe, it would undoubtedly create a black hole. Now, yes, it is somewhat unfair to put the physics of our own known universe onto the form that would become that very universe, given the point that such physics wouldn't technically exist, but then again science is at its core explaining and theorizing using modern physical laws.
It's all a big mess, and really it won't change anytime soon, since no-one will wake up tomorrow knowing all the secrets of the universe. Hence the fact that they're the secrets of the universe. But there are so many holes in the big bang theory when you really scrutinize it that the fact that it's still so highly believed, contended and defended is an anomaly of itself.
Especially when such wrenches are thrown into the system, charring up the whole theory.
Oh, well, that's human nature I suppose... believe the unbelievable.

[Mythos]

Crazy alien scientist working on amazingly advanced physics. Blows an 1 billion light year hole.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Crazy alien scientist working on amazingly advanced physics. Blows an 1 billion light year hole.

[Justice and Mercy]

Err, isn't this really pretty obvious?

Matter is expanding, it's not going to stay in the same place.

Now, here's a REAL question: Why is it expanding faster and faster?

[Spurius]

Matter is expanding, it's not going to stay in the same place.

It's not exactly as if stuff is simply flying away from eachother, it's expansion - like a raisinbread the galaxies keep their relative distances, and all other real movement relative to each other is NOT expansion, but just movement.

Distances get bigger, but everything gets bigger. Space most noticeably, since that was bigger to begin with

The observed 'edge' of the Universe is now something like 13.6 billion lightyears away, a few hundred thousand years after the big bang that was something like 141 million lightyears - only.

Doesn't really explain those holes easily.

[Justice and Mercy]

It's not exactly as if stuff is simply flying away from eachother, it's expansion - like a raisinbread the galaxies keep their relative distances, and all other real movement relative to each other is NOT expansion, but just movement.

Distances get bigger, but everything gets bigger. Space most noticeably, since that was bigger to begin with

The observed 'edge' of the Universe is now something like 13.6 billion lightyears away, a few hundred thousand years after the big bang that was something like 141 million lightyears - only.

Doesn't really explain those holes easily.

What? How is everything getting bigger?

[Spurius]

If you put everything on a coordinate system, the coordinate system itself turns out to expand.

Maybe this video will explain it more visually:

http://spacegeek.org/ep7_flash.shtml

[Justice and Mercy]

If you put everything on a coordinate system, the coordinate system itself turns out to expand.

Only if you change the coordinate system.

Of course, if you didn't, there would be a point where there are objects outside of the coordinate system.

But none of this means anything.

Space isn't expanding. Matter is. Not space. No one really knows why it's expanding, though. Gravity says it should be coming together...

You made a point about observable space expanding... that doesn't mean space is expanding, once again it simply means matter is expanding. "Observable space" being the farthest object from us, since we can't really observe beyond that.

[Spurius]

I added a link to a video to my previous post, that will explain it better maybe.

[Justice and Mercy]

The guy seems to think that the fact that everything is getting further from us suggests that we're the center of the universe...

Which it doesn't.

Still watching.

EDIT: And his balloon example was flawed as hell. It assumes that space is expanding.

It's not. The universe isn't a balloon, and space can't push objects. It can't exert force. If it did, energy in space wouldn't be unlimited.

[Spurius]

The guy seems to think that the fact that everything is getting further from us suggests that we're the center of the universe...

Which it doesn't.

Still watching.

EDIT: And his balloon example was flawed as hell. It assumes that space is expanding.

It's not. The universe isn't a balloon, and space can't push objects. It can't exert force. If it did, energy in space wouldn't be unlimited.

The balloon example falls short of what's happening, yes. So does the raisinbread. They're analogies, they're never perfect.

The entire universe is expanding, space and matter with it.

They even call it the metric expansion of space, I believe.

http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101bbtest1.html

Your remark about the absent center of the universe is correct, although I don't think the guy in the video actually claimed one.

http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/ph...GR/centre.html

[added]

Here's a pic:



The reason matter stays together is gravity, ofcourse.