MadameConcorde From San Marino, joined Feb 2007, 10347 posts, RR: 40 Posted (5 years 10 months 6 hours ago) and read 1167 times:
I hope this is the appropriate thread for posting this article which I just found on Yahoo.news
How could there be "nothing" in the Universe?
Astronomers puzzled by cosmic blank spot
WASHINGTON - Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday.
Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the universe where nobody's home. In fact, one such place is practically a neighbor, a mere 2 million light years away. But what the Minnesota team discovered, using two different types of astronomical observations, is a void that's far bigger than scientists ever imagined.
Hate to break it to you, but that chair you are sitting in is mostly empty space. Your computer, mostly empty space. The human body, the Earth, and everything we know is mostly empty space.
We discovered more empty space...and it's newsworthy??
IFEMaster From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (5 years 9 months 4 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 982 times:
Quoting Futurecaptain (Reply 3): Hate to break it to you, but that chair you are sitting in is mostly empty space. Your computer, mostly empty space. The human body, the Earth, and everything we know is mostly empty space.
We discovered more empty space...and it's newsworthy??
While what you say is true in layman's terms, it's not entirely true in scientific terms. There's is a difference between an empty space as you describe it, and an 'empty space' by true definition.
The truth is, other than in a humanly created true vacuum, nowhere on earth is true 'empty space'. There is always something filling it, even if it's just air. In the vacuum of space, the vast places that exist between stars and planets and comets and meteors etc. is generally accepted as being filled with the mysterious 'dark matter'; the enigma that is generally believed to be the 'glue' of the universe. What the scientists are saying in this case is that the 'nothing' that they've found is even devoid of dark matter. This could have bigger consequences on science, particularly partical physics and quantum theory, than first meets the eye. The 'nothing' that is there is in fact a much bigger deal than a lot of people will realize.
Yellowstone From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 3071 posts, RR: 7 Reply 7, posted (5 years 9 months 4 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 961 times:
Quoting IFEMaster (Reply 6): While what you say is true in layman's terms, it's not entirely true in scientific terms. There's is a difference between an empty space as you describe it, and an 'empty space' by true definition.
The truth is, other than in a humanly created true vacuum, nowhere on earth is true 'empty space'.
I think he may be referring to the fact that atoms are mostly empty space, and therefore anything made of atoms will also be mostly empty space. Neutron stars are perhaps the most notable exception.
Hydrogen is an odorless, colorless gas which, given enough time, turns into people.
Yes, I was referring to atoms. But I didn't think of dark matter before writing what I did.
Perhaps that is the end of the universe...where the dark matter stops?
Perhaps our universe acts like the electrons of an atom. The dark matter is always moving and we can't predict where it will be. Quantum physics on a grand scale.
Or, perhaps it is just a void. Heaven? Hell? Klingon cloaking device?
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