True that! The only previous observation was that now that it is suspected that the Universe is expanding faster each year, and that the furthest celestial objects are approaching the speed of light, which means that we may never see the "edge" of the Universe.
I interpret this to mean that the most distant stars are approaching such a distance from Earth that their emitted light would at some point in time be older than the Universe (big bang, premiering tonight). This means we may never see anything further away than light could travel in 13.7 billion years, ever. (Wikipedia) We could never know then if anything existed prior to the big bang. With this new discovery, that and many other deep thoughts (think very much higher math) would throw many of our heretofore accepted deep thoughts into a serious restructuring. Those of you that have a grasp of higher mathematics probably know more about this than I can hope to imagine. Corrections and cosmological insults are welcomed and just as easily dismissed… :-) On Sep 22, 2011, at 15:08 , Daniel J. Matyola wrote: > > GENEVA (AP) - A pillar of physics - that nothing can go faster than > the speed of light - appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic > particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert > Einstein's theories. Scientists at the world's largest physics lab > said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. > That's something that according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of > relativity - the famous E (equals) mc2 equation - just doesn't happen. > "The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't > be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European > Organization for Nuclear Research. The organization, known as CERN, > hosted part of the experiment, which is unrelated to the massive $10 > billion Large Hadron Collider also located at the site. Gillies told > The Associated Press that the readings have so astounded researchers > that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements > before claiming an actual discovery. > > "They are inviting the broader physics community to look at what > they've done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for > someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements," he said > Thursday. Scientists at the competing Fermilab in Chicago have > promised to start such work immediately. "It's a shock," said Fermilab > head theoretician Stephen Parke, who was not part of the research in > Geneva. "It's going to cause us problems, no doubt about that - if > it's true." The Chicago team had similar faster-than-light results in > 2007, but those came with a giant margin of error that undercut its > scientific significance. Other outside scientists expressed skepticism > at CERN's claim that the neutrinos - one of the strangest well-known > particles in physics - were observed smashing past the cosmic speed > barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second). > > University of Maryland physics department chairman Drew Baden called > it "a flying carpet," something that was too fantastic to be > believable. CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle > accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in > Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. > Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, > making the difference statistically significant. But given the > enormous implications of the find, they still spent months checking > and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the > experiment. "We have not found any instrumental effect that could > explain the result of the measurement," said Antonio Ereditato, a > physicist at the University of Bern, Switzerland, who was involved in > the experiment known as OPERA. The researchers are now looking to the > United States and Japan to confirm the results. A similar neutrino > experiment at Fermilab near Chicago would be capable of running the > tests, said Stavros Katsanevas, the deputy director of France's > National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research. The > institute collaborated with Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory for > the experiment at CERN. Katsanevas said help could also come from the > T2K experiment in Japan, though that is currently on hold after the > country's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Scientists > agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental > rethink of the laws of nature. Einstein's special relativity theory > that says energy equals mass times the speed of light squared > underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," said John Ellis, > a theoretical physicist at CERN who was not involved in the > experiment. "It has worked perfectly up until now." He cautioned that > the neutrino researchers would have to explain why similar results > weren't detected before. "This would be such a sensational discovery > if it were true that one has to treat it extremely carefully," said > Ellis. > > Dan Matyola Joseph McAllister [email protected] THE SENILITY PRAYER : Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and The eyesight to tell the difference. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
