|
|
|
|
Articles: Devotion | In quest of infinity - 9
- Prof. venkata ramanamurty mallajosyula
| |
Contact between physics, astronomy and astrophysics constantly grew, and people wondered whether Big Bang could have any basis at all in physics. Yes it could, and that came via Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation. We saw that while Einstein was actually the first to discover the fact that the Universe might actually have had a beginning, he brushed aside his own discovery because he was steeped in the Maya of those times, according to which, the Universe is neither born nor dies but always is and steady.
Pity we were not able to meet the Prof for if we had, we would have politely coughed and said, “Excuse me Prof, that thing about being neither born nor dying applies to Supreme Consciousness, and not the Universe. In fact the Universe came out of this Supreme Consciousness, that some call the Atma.” But Destiny had willed that Einstein should “goof” and misinterpret his discovery. Thus he promptly disowned his own discovery, later calling it the greatest blunder of his life. As it turned out, his greatest blunder was to disown his discovery!
Anyway, to get on with the revision, sometime after the idea of the Big Bang was proposed, the Cosmic Microwave Background [see QFI - 02] was discovered, that appeared to strongly confirm the Big Bang. The CMB then became a subject for serious investigations and thanks to satellites it could be studied very carefully, with far greater precision than before. These studies opened up many new avenues of thought.
When the CMB was first discovered, there was euphoria all round, but soon people started worrying. They were worried because the intensity of CMB was the same in whichever direction one looked in the sky. Astronomers murmured, “It is nice to know that the CMB is isotropic, but it is too isotropic for comfort. If this is really true, then how come we have galaxies?” We might wonder why on earth these crazy fellows were worried sick when they really ought to be partying and celebrating the discovery of the CMB? Actually, they did party and all that – let me tell you that scientists are second to none in succumbing to all the temptations that ordinary folks yield to; they are no Rishis! – but at the end of the day when they became sober again, they started worrying about unsolved mysteries. It is this worry that propels science!
| Be first to comment on this Article!
| |
|
|
|
 |
| Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
| Advertisements |
|
