They were never going to disprove the big bang. As much, disprove the currently accepted times for it (big bang was 13.7 billion years ago). So as an example, imagine being 14.4 billions years old instead.
Of course the other explanation is that we don’t understand the early phase of the Universe and the 13.7B number is right.
That’s if, (a big if) the very preliminary data they have is right. It will be years until it’s all examined properly.
Houngan
5477
I could buy there being two separate, similar events in the last 14B years, which would somewhat redefine the scope of the Big Bang, but I don’t think it would disprove it.
I don’t see how you account for the cosmic microwave background that way. It’s the last light emitted by a nearly homogeneous plasma-filled universe, two bangs would result in some sort of anisotropy (things wouldn’t look the same in all directions).
To answer @RichVR 's question, Big Bang could in principle be overturned by a piece of evidence being discovered that was fundamentally incompatible with the theory, but that’s astoundingly unlikely because it’s one of the most strongly supported and extensively tested theories we have. It makes excellent predictions about what we see in the universe and, every time we get a better view, those predictions seem to hold up.
Now, a piece of evidence (as these galaxies may be) that cause us to tweak it is entirely possible and even likely, but as a basic model for how the universe evolves there’s a preponderance of evidence in its favor.
Dejin
5479
Artemis on launch pad fueling up (care of NASA Live Feed)
Looking like they might have to scrub for today and aim for Friday. Something about the feed from the hydrogen tanks to the engines not working quite as intended. Nothing official yet, but with any issue like this, I suspect they’ll exercise caution.
Yeah I got up early to watch the livestream and they are holding at T - 40min while trying to figure out why engine 3 (of 4) can’t do a successful engine bleed. I’d concur with your opinion, if they don’t find a simple stupid explanation with an easy fix in the next hour or so they pretty much have to postpone.
And yep, they just called the scrub.
antlers
5483
Sucks for the people who camped out for days getting a good vantage point for the launch, but hardly surprising.
This is why despite me living only an hour away I have yet to see a launch up close. Traffic is hell during these events and the likelihood of a launch getting scrubbed is so high.
They were expecting up to a million people today.
— Alan
I watched one when we were on holiday in Florida a few years back. Had to get up at 4 am and drive in from Orlando, but man was it worth it! Absolutely blew my mind…
lowress picture that is still the wallpaper on my phone…
Nice!
Here’s the pic:
A coronograph blocks the light from the star so that the telescope can actually image the planet. The article says that the different shapes in each of the images are due to the different optics in the various IR cameras. It doesn’t say so explicitly (I guess it goes without saying) but the actual size of the planet must be (much?) less than one pixel, so we’re not seeing anything about the shape of the planet.
It’d be crazy if it was a cube. Minecraft’s planet discovered.
jpinard
5493
Theories? don't say aliens
That’s some big ass Angels, because that’s an AT field.
Those really look like diffraction, but around what is the question. I mean, if you send light through a pinhole you get an Airy disk like this:
So you can see the similarity. A small obstruction would do it. On the other hand, the JWST folks say that’s not it:
“Yes, those nested ‘squircular’ rings are real,” Ryan Lau, an astronomer at NOIRLab and principal investigator of the project that acquired the observations, replied to the Twitter thread. “Our paper on this has been submitted so please stay tuned for the full story.”
A Wolf-Rayet star producing bubbles of ejected material is standard business, but that would be a LOT of ejected material to create such a dense pattern. I’ll tell you what it’s not, though:
The circles, however, are not perfectly round, but have a somewhat square-like feel to them, prompting speculations about possible alien origins.
I had thought better of space.com than that kind of nonsense.
