RE: Light and the Big Bang

From: Joe Dees (joedees@addall.com)
Date: Mon Jan 28 2002 - 06:57:12 GMT

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    Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 22:57:12 -0800
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    From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com>
    To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    Subject: RE: Light and the Big Bang
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    > "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Light and the Big BangDate: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 12:52:43 -0800
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >
    >
    >> Hi Dace -
    >>
    >> >It's common knowledge among physicists, astronomers,
    >> >cosmologists, etc., that light didn't appear until 300,00 years after
    >> >the big bang (though I recently saw this figure upped to 400,000,
    >> >unfortunately without any explanation for the revised figure).
    >>
    >> The cosmic background radiation that we can detect, yes, began at
    >> that time. It is a space-time boundary caused by the scattering
    >> qualities of photons and the nature of the early universe. It's not that
    >> light (photons) was not there, but that it was undetectable.
    >
    >Wade,
    >
    >You're reducing light to photons. This is not quite correct. Photons only
    >constitute light when they're allowed to travel freely across space in
    >waves. When photons and electrons are bound together in a single substance,
    >there can be neither light nor anything for the light to illuminate.
    >
    >> http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni/uni_101bbtest3.html
    >>
    >> The behavior of CMB photons moving through the early universe is
    >> analogous to the propagation of optical light through the Earth's
    >> atmosphere. Water droplets in a cloud are very effective at scattering
    >> light, while optical light moves freely through clear air. Thus, on a
    >> cloudy day, we can look through the air out towards the clouds, but can
    >> not see through the opaque clouds.
    >
    >The sun casts light onto the clouds, at which point the light is scattered.
    >In the early universe, on the other hand, there was never any light in the
    >first place that could then be scattered. Right from the get-go, photons
    >were bound up with electrons and unable to form into light rays.
    >
    >What this illustrates is that there are two kinds of darkness. The darkness
    >we're accustomed to is simply the absence of light. The darkness of the
    >early universe is the creation of light. This is why the interior of the
    >sun is dark. Light cannot exist in the process of its own generation.
    >
    The universe cooled enough to permit light or other detectable radiant forms to exist long before it cooled enough to allow matter to coalesce.
    >
    >
    >Ted
    >
    >
    >
    >===============================================================
    >This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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