THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249 usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
2022-2023: XV
Sunrise: 6:25 a.m.
Sunset: 6:44 p.m.
Civil twilight ends: 7:12 p.m.
Sun's host constellation: Virgo the Maiden
Moon phase: Waning crescent (37% illuminated)
Moonrise: 12:31 a.m. (9/20/2022)
Moonset: 4:41 p.m. (9/20/2022)
Julian date: 2459842.16
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."
-Winston Churchill
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Monday, September 19, 2022
Is the Big Bang Theory WRONG?!
Have you heard the latest?
The James Webb Space Telescope, the images of which have wowed the world and will soon be adorning the walls of your local planetarium (shameless self promotion), has unearthed (inappropriate word choice) evidence that the Big Bang Theory is all wrong. For those who've never seen the show, the Big Bang Theory posits that the Universe took form out of a cosmic "atom" approximately 13.84 billion years ago. Everything in the Universe, including space, time, energy, matter and, well, everything, arose out of this seminal event. This miraculous moment also precipitated the Universal expansion, which continues to this day. This theory serves as the very foundation of modern cosmology, the branch of science pertaining to the cosmos and its origin. But, now, the already celebrated JWST has collected images that conclusively prove that the Big Bang, that reinforced concrete cornerstone of modern cosmology, is false! The resultant upheaval to the cosmological world will prove to be nothing short of tectonic.
Ok, I think we've drawn the hook out long enough.
The Big Bang Theory, ladies and gentlemen, is perfectly fine. In fact, Apart from proving it incorrect, the James Webb Space Telescope has gathered data confirming the Big Bang Theory. The viral video on which this pronouncement of the Big Bang's demise was introduced is, happily, as false and frivolous as it is dazzling and well produced. This video, viewed by millions of people, initiated this latest fervor surrounding the Big Bang Theory's demise: a fervor that hasn't quite abated. It will soon.
The notion that the Big Bang has now been tossed into the bin is based on a misplaced quote from University of Kansas astrophysicist Allison Kirkpatrick who, in a piece published in the journal Nature, wrote:
"Right now I find myself lying awake at three in the morning, wondering if everything I've ever done is wrong."
Little did Dr. Kirkpatrick know that this one candid statement would be taken about ten light years out of context. She was referring to galaxy formation. The Webb Space Telescope images have revealed that early galaxies seemed to be more massive and well structured than once believed. Within the standard cosmological model. galaxies were thought to have formed in a more hierarchical manner with smaller bodies merging to create larger galaxies. However, the James Webb Space Telescope images show that these galaxies from the infant Universe were more evolved than the standard model suggested they should have been.
Speaking of which:
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Thousands upon thousands of distant galaxies are revealed in this stunningWebb Space Telescope image. Covering a minute swath of the sky (as large as a sand grain held at arm's length), this first Webb Deep Field shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. Located 4.24 billion light years away within the constellations Volans, this rich cluster behaves like a gravitational lens that projects even more distant galaxies into the image. (The most distant galaxy dates back to within a billion years of the Big Bang.) Captured in near and mid-infrared, the Webb Deep Field consists of multiple images captured over a 12.5 hour time period. These are among the most distant objects ever captured in infra-red. Credit: NASA/JPL
The discovery that galaxies were more evolved and massive than previously believed does not indicate that the Big Bang Theory is wrong. It merely means that some of the timeline needs to be adjusted. The Webb Telescope has shown that, indeed, smaller galaxies give rise to larger ones over time. The process is confirmed, even if the intermittent stages are somewhat different than once thought.
So, rest comfortably in the assurance that the Big Bang Theory has not gone quietly into that dark night.
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