Ask Me Anything AMA with Astrophysicist Dr. Joe Pesce!

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DrJoe Pesce, last question, please :)

If the big bang started with a finite size, has a finite expansion rate and finite age, why doesn't it now, have a finite size with a centre and boundary?

Why can't it be treated as an object like a galaxy? What is it in science that makes you so sure it isn't as above? Why are you so sure it didn't go bang in a pre-existing space rather than being responsible for all of space?

Thanks :)
 
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Thank you for the opportunity to ask my question. What is the nature of Reality? Over the years I’ve developed a theory of Cosmic Consciousness, admittedly largely a philosophical inspection of Reality, inspired by theoretical physicist Amit Goswami’s The Self-Aware Universe & MIT cosmologist/mathematician Max Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe, along with other related ideas in quantum physics. In this theory, Cosmic Consciousness is the ground for all Being & a purely abstract mathematical structure is the foundation for the physical reality of the multiverse (whether actual or virtual). The main idea is that matter arose from Consciousness rather than the conventional wisdom’s having life & then consciousness somehow emerging from inorganic matter. This solves the paradox of the double-slit experiment’s quandary. Recently I watched Infinite Potential: The Life & Ideas of David Bohm, which seems to offer some approval. Are you willing to go out on a limb beyond the science we know to speculate on what else might be necessary to fully appreciate our existence, our local consciousness in our Universe?
 

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Hi, again, DrJoe Pesce

I'm assuming space is a 'something' just as gas is.

SPACE is expanding, with embedded galaxies
GAS is expanding, with embedded ball bearings

Space is pushing the galaxies apart.
Gas is pushing the ball bearings apart.

To compare like with like, I've assumed the big bang happened from a finite size in a pre-existing space.

I still can't see any difference.

After rewording my analogy is your answer still the same? :)

This is more an issue of language than anything else. The ball bearings are in and surrounded by the gas, bu they aren’t EMBEDDED in the gas (there are no gas molecules inside the ball bearings). Instead, in the universe, space and time suffuses everything – it is embedded within galaxies, stars, people, atoms, etc.

When space expands, the universe gets bigger, dragging everything with it. When the gas from an explosion expands, the gas cloud gets bigger, but not the surrounding environment nor the distance between the atoms in the ball bearings.
 
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DrJoePesce

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DrJoe Pesce, last question, please :)

If the big bang started with a finite size, has a finite expansion rate and finite age, why doesn't it now, have a finite size with a centre and boundary?

Why can't it be treated as an object like a galaxy? What is it in science that makes you so sure it isn't as above? Why are you so sure it didn't go bang in a pre-existing space rather than being responsible for all of space?

Thanks :)

Thanks for the enthusiasm David J Franks!

If the Big Bang started as a singularity, then it had no dimension/size. There’s no center or boundary because space itself is expanding. There need not be anything the universe is expanding into (this is where our human experience fails us).
 
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DrJoePesce

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Thank you for the opportunity to ask my question. What is the nature of Reality? Over the years I’ve developed a theory of Cosmic Consciousness, admittedly largely a philosophical inspection of Reality, inspired by theoretical physicist Amit Goswami’s The Self-Aware Universe & MIT cosmologist/mathematician Max Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe, along with other related ideas in quantum physics. In this theory, Cosmic Consciousness is the ground for all Being & a purely abstract mathematical structure is the foundation for the physical reality of the multiverse (whether actual or virtual). The main idea is that matter arose from Consciousness rather than the conventional wisdom’s having life & then consciousness somehow emerging from inorganic matter. This solves the paradox of the double-slit experiment’s quandary. Recently I watched Infinite Potential: The Life & Ideas of David Bohm, which seems to offer some approval. Are you willing to go out on a limb beyond the science we know to speculate on what else might be necessary to fully appreciate our existence, our local consciousness in our Universe?


Thanks for asking Patrick Ivers. I have to say I am not familiar with these references, in particular the documentary, so I won’t comment on them specifically.

It is indeed amazing that cells (neurons) and electrical and chemical signals cause us to ponder the universe. This is a marvelous thing, I think.

As we think about the universe around us, it’s important to remember that in order to make scientific progress, we have to ask questions, and offer guesses at the answers, that potentially can be tested (and have the potential to be refuted). We can make assumptions, but we want to test those assumptions when and if we can too. And it’s important to note that we might not be able to test the assumptions or test the hypothesis now, today. Maybe that’s because we don’t yet have deeper understanding, or the technology, necessary to do the testing. This is why I say “potentially” can be tested. We can ponder and speculate all we want, but until we can test, we can’t advance and truly know.
 

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And so we come to the end of the week and this particular AMA. It has zoomed by so quickly! I appreciate all the questions, and, more importantly, the deep interest in how things work and the universe around us. Keep questioning, and looking up!

Thank you all!
 
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We DO see galaxies a long way away as they were a long time ago. In fact, EVERYTHING we observe in astronomy is as it was in the past (because of the finite light travel time). On a very local scale (for example our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy) gravity can affect galaxies more than the cosmic expansion, so they can move around each other, be attracted to each other, etc. But on the much larger scale, the expansion can’t slow down. The only way it could is if there were enough matter in the universe to slow expansion. If there were even more matter, then the expansion could stop, or even reverse. As far as we can tell, there is NOT enough matter in the universe to slow, stop, and/or reverse expansion.
Thank you for your insight I appreciate it. Just been thinking about that for awhile. Seeing things expanding that fast is scary considering it happened 13 billion plus years ago. Wonder what it would look like today.
 
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Hello ThinkTank, I love the thinking! First of all, you mention “light holes”. I’m not sure what you mean, but presumably “white holes”. While we have lots of evidence for black holes, we don’t have any for white holes. They can, theoretically, exist, but we’ve not detected any. Ah, and reading further I see what you are suggesting for “light holes”. Remember, black holes have mass, so they can’t travel faster than the speed of light.
Thanks again for your deep well of knowledge. Gets me thinking again . Yes I did mean white holes. It made me think of mass being able to travel those speeds if there was enough warping of space time from the unimaginable gravity black holes would produce.
 
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Guess what... I've been thinking again. Would very much like your insight on this matter. TIME TRAVEL . Instead of trying to go faster to achieve it what if we figure out what absolute 0 speed would be. Figure in the rotation speed of the solar system. Figure in the rotation speed of the galaxy . Of course I'm sure there are other speeds to factor in. To figure out what 0.00 speed would be. what do you think would happen? Would everything just zip right out of existence. Or would we find our self plastered on some kind of matter object coming along the same path as our galaxy.
 
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Dr. Pesce, with Venus being roughly the size of Earth with all manner of surface scars and features, and Mars being roughly the size of the land surface area on the Earth, is it reasonable to continue down an alternate line of thought which varies substantially from the traditional teachings on the nature and makeup of our solar system?

I know this link below has religious aspects associated with it, but if what's being described actually is the way it's described, then it would not be religion at work but rather science.

As students of nature, can we investigate such things scientifically even if they originate from an alternate point of view when we legitimately find hints that point to possibilities, and upon additional consideration and examination find additional points and aspects which can be re-understood and still provide context and framework for what we actually observe, can truly test, and can physically measure?

In short: Can a religious doctrine or belief actually drive real scientific research? Can the framework for the basis of the idea come from something religious, even though the intent is to verify and prove it scientifically using the scientific method?


I'm wanting to find out if this idea is actually possible. If it can be investigated scientifically? If there is any hard and real, widely accepted scientific evidence which would refute the idea upon initial examination? Or does it remain possible after an initial first-pass examination?
 
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Dr. Pesce, with Venus being roughly the size of Earth with all manner of surface scars and features, and Mars being roughly the size of the land surface area on the Earth, is it reasonable to continue down an alternate line of thought which varies substantially from the traditional teachings on the nature and makeup of our solar system?

I know this link below has religious aspects associated with it, but if what's being described actually is the way it's described, then it would not be religion at work but rather science.

As students of nature, can we investigate such things scientifically even if they originate from an alternate point of view when we legitimately find hints that point to possibilities, and upon additional consideration and examination find additional points and aspects which can be re-understood and still provide context and framework for what we actually observe, can truly test, and can physically measure?

In short: Can a religious doctrine or belief actually drive real scientific research? Can the framework for the basis of the idea come from something religious, even though the intent is to verify and prove it scientifically using the scientific method?


I'm wanting to find out if this idea is actually possible. If it can be investigated scientifically? If there is any hard and real, widely accepted scientific evidence which would refute the idea upon initial examination? Or does it remain possible after an initial first-pass examination?
Generally (but not always) any deviation from mainstream thought (Rome, Catholicism etc ) has been considered heresy and the proponents excluded, marginalised, imprisoned, tortured, killed by various means (burnt at the stake etc), ie Giordano Bruno for his Copernican views on the role/mechanism of the Sun etc. A good read on why the status quo doesn't like/fears to be challenged is Immanuel Velikovsky "Mankind in Amnesia"
 
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Hello Dr. Joe Pesce
Do you think it might be possible the fabric of space time is as it says ( fabric or dough)? I sometimes think of it like this. Got it from the rising bread in an oven analogy. when I think of black holes I think of space time being like the uncooked dough . How flour can be added and fold the dough to where there are creases in the dough. fold it many times. Each crease would be a black hole. The dough would never really become a solid chunk of dough if there is enough flour added. It would be possible to carefully peel a crease in the dough apart to reveal more surface area.
 
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Generally (but not always) any deviation from mainstream thought (Rome, Catholicism etc ) has been considered heresy and the proponents excluded, marginalised, imprisoned, tortured, killed by various means (burnt at the stake etc), ie Giordano Bruno for his Copernican views on the role/mechanism of the Sun etc. A good read on why the status quo doesn't like/fears to be challenged is Immanuel Velikovsky "Mankind in Amnesia"

Thank you, Sally. My cues come from what we see and observe by our probes, images, readings, coupled to my own curiosity over decades, and my faith.

What I want to do is verify scientifically if the narrative given in my faith bears out under real scrutiny, given this expanded understanding of what was originally written, just as we originally read about "seeds," but today we understand the inner workings of seeds to be protein structures and DNA. It expands on the fundamentals, but does not alter them.

If we can take the narrative and actually apply it to what we see through a real scientific method, and the two align, then that's the goal I'm after. I'm not trying to push an agenda. I think agendas are wrong. What I want is something different. I am truth-seeking, trying to resolve unresolved questions, for example, like why Venus is the way it is? Why Mars is as it is? Why the Earth is as it is?

This theory I linked to above seems to address all of those questions, and answers others I've had, but it requires a fundamental departure from mainstream learning in several disciplines.

I don't want to continue forward on my own and do it wrong. I want it to be scientifically founded and for there to be a consensus among many all the way through that what we see aligns with the theory. I want everything to align with both the source material guiding the idea, then translated into what we actually find with our probes and observations and our own eye and minds.

Doing this, if it's true, it will all naturally correlate. But if it's false, it will not.
 
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You're not thinking big enough. This reality wouldn't be here with the right settings without a God.

I tend to agree. I've seen one statistic that says a particular constant, if it were altered out at the 128th decimal place, would produce a fundamentally different universe that would not support the life we see in this one.

However, faith is one thing. People have faith in all kinds of things. For a particular faith to be correct, it has to align with reality.

If we can look into our solar system and see the possibility of an alternate explanation than the one we've been told our entire lives, and grandfather's lives, and further back, and if that other explanation holds up to scientific scrutiny and examination by rational minds thinking properly and considering things properly as per the scientific method and all other aspects of reason and faculty we possess, then it actually begins that change Dr. Pesce wrote about on page 2, that in science we always believe and move the best we can until new evidence or ideas come to light.

That light may be dawning here, but I don't know. I want to know, but I need help. I want others with expertise and knowledge I do not possess to examine it and show me where the idea is flawed or not possible. I would like to be set free from this burden as it's been with me for 10 years now. If it's true, I'd like to know. If it's false, I'd like to know that too. But I need others to help me because I do not know enough to know the actual answer (I only have faith :)).
 
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There is alot of not so perfect stuff in reality but maybe that's the point. Makes room for change. I believe there is something that made and is driving things the way they are. It's hard to believe this was all by chance. One perfect example would be the eye ball of creatures and humans...Maybe the universe created us so it can say " See I am real and this really happened " if mankind was not here would any of this be real?
 
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I have a classic question then I'll try to break it down. I would really much like your input on this Sally or Dr. Joe Pesce Or both if I can get lucky. What came first the chicken or the egg? This is a tough one. Personally I think the egg came first because you can't have a chicken without an egg. Comes down to quantum physics. Amino acids and proteins and other stuff making up a chicken egg came together inside a protected barrier made of calcium. One other theory is that there was a mutation and environments change and a creature had to change the way it delivered its offsprings over a long period of time in the making. I would really like an experts opinion
 
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Hello Dr. Joe Pesce
Do you think it might be possible the fabric of space time is as it says ( fabric or dough)? I sometimes think of it like this. Got it from the rising bread in an oven analogy. when I think of black holes I think of space time being like the uncooked dough . How flour can be added and fold the dough to where there are creases in the dough. fold it many times. Each crease would be a black hole. The dough would never really become a solid chunk of dough if there is enough flour added. It would be possible to carefully peel a crease in the dough apart to reveal more surface area.
Sorry I can never get my thumbs to type as fast as my brain wants to explain. The flour would be gravity or gravitons
 
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I tend to agree. I've seen one statistic that says a particular constant, if it were altered out at the 128th decimal place, would produce a fundamentally different universe that would not support the life we see in this one.

However, faith is one thing. People have faith in all kinds of things. For a particular faith to be correct, it has to align with reality.

If we can look into our solar system and see the possibility of an alternate explanation than the one we've been told our entire lives, and grandfather's lives, and further back, and if that other explanation holds up to scientific scrutiny and examination by rational minds thinking properly and considering things properly as per the scientific method and all other aspects of reason and faculty we possess, then it actually begins that change Dr. Pesce wrote about on page 2, that in science we always believe and move the best we can until new evidence or ideas come to light.

That light may be dawning here, but I don't know. I want to know, but I need help. I want others with expertise and knowledge I do not possess to examine it and show me where the idea is flawed or not possible. I would like to be set free from this burden as it's been with me for 10 years now. If it's true, I'd like to know. If it's false, I'd like to know that too. But I need others to help me because I do not know enough to know the actual answer (I only have faith :)).

 
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Hello,
Would it be possible for a black hole to not be infinitely dense? I guess I dont know enough to come to a conclusion and the math is to difficult for me to calculate. Is it possible for a black hole to fill up its innards and become a white hole? The reason we dont see any white holes might be because black holes are still filling up. If that is the case, Not sure how long we would have to wait as a species to see one. I would imagine our universe would become much different if black holes started making the transition. Or maybe its vice versa. Black holes might have been white holes in the beginning of its life. That would make more sense considering how close matter particles would have been to each other shortly after the big bang. White holes could have been what drove inflation. Think about it, if a bunch of white holes formed about the same time and started blasting matter around the cosmos would have no choice but to expand. Then after space got bigger and the universe got less dense because of more space. The white holes would run out of particles to spew out. It would start eating to build up its innards again only to repeat its process .
 
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Hi,
I keep imagining dark matter and dark energy. Could dark matter be a by-product of light? maybe light would decay after so much travel time. It might decay into dark matter and keep traveling on like it does. Dark matter could have an attractive property to return back to the spot or location the light was created but can't because more light would decay and add new dark matter into the halo around a galaxy. What would happen if all of a sudden ( if it were possible) a galaxy would stop producing light particles ? The dark matter would over take the area all the matter is occupying and come crashing in all directions back to the location( the center of a galaxy) the light was produced. It would have no choice but to punch a hole in the universe and create a black hole because of the sheer volume of dark matter that was created.
 
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