Astrophysicists Puzzle over Webb's New Universe

(quantamagazine.org)

30 points | by jnord 2 hours ago

3 comments

  • dvh 29 minutes ago
    Only two things are infinite: the cosmos, and a web designer’s obsession with discovering new ways to break scrolling.
  • gbjcantab 41 minutes ago
    This is one of my favorite phenomena: again in again, across various fields of study, breakthroughs in discovery allow us to go from relative ignorance to a level of knowledge and understanding that enables clear and clean conceptual models; then, as we learn even more, we realize how much more complex and weird and multifaceted reality really is.

    It’s like a Dunning-Kruger effect on a field-wide scale, but in a good way. Rather than an example of hubris, it’s an opportunity for awe.

    • qsera 28 minutes ago
      >It’s like a Dunning-Kruger effect on a field-wide scale, but in a good way.

      But not in in medical field. The unjustifiable over confidence can lead to application of bad things on a generational and population wide scale, damaging many many generations of human beings.

  • jdw64 1 hour ago
    As observations become too numerous, it seems like it can be summarized as there now being too many possible candidate explanations. As data increases and becomes clearer, more and more things don't fit the existing theories.

    What are the current theories explaining the early universe? What happened to the Big Bang? I only studied astronomy up to an undergraduate level, so I don't really know.

    I imagine that various non-uniform gases were scattered around, and due to spatial distortions, those uniform gas regions clumped together, forming stars and other structures. Perhaps the expansion of space wasn't uniform either—it expanded unevenly, sometimes bulging, and when space expands or contracts, energy is generated, causing spacetime changes to shake the field, and that shaking might have created matter. Maybe the dynamic interaction between changing spacetime and fields revealed the energy stored in the field in the form of particles.

    What do scientists think about this in modern cosmology? My knowledge is far too limited and I lack intuition, but reading science-related articles always excites me. Maybe it's because I still have some childlike curiosity left in me

    • jvs76 45 minutes ago
      I dont think about it because my days are occupied by very specific problems. Theory of Bounded Rationality and its implications apply.
      • jdw64 37 minutes ago
        Right. When you don't have any breathing room, it's hard to think about anything else. That's why I take about two hours a day to just watch the news and clear my head. I'd probably forget all about it too if I were working 70-hour weeks on a contracted project, haha. Hang in there. Have a good day