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Olbers' paradox

en.wikipedia.org

21–22 of 22 posts

Re: Olbers' paradox

#21
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The paradox says that an universe infinite in space and time would have to be bright in all directions. By infinite in time, I mean that the universe has been around infinitely long, i.e. it has no beginning. The finite speed of light wouldn't matter here since the light would have had an infinite amount of time to reach you.

Huh? We definitely know that that doesn't describe the universe. If two points are so far apart that the expansion of space inflates the distance between them faster than light can cross it, then no light can ever reach from one to the other, even if it travels for an infinitely long time.

> If two points are so far apart that the expansion of space inflates the distance between them faster than light can cross it, then no light can ever reach from one to the other, even if it travels for an infinitely long time

Actually, it can. The issue is quite subtle. What you are saying is true only if the Hubble parameter is constant, it is not. (Hubble constant is such a misnomer! It's only constant across space but not time).

You may want to re-read paragraph 3.3 of the Lineweaver paper (http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0310808v2.pdf)

Quotes :

> Photons near the Hubble sphere that are receding slowly are overtaken by the more rapidly receding Hubble sphere.

> The most distant objects that we can see now were outside the Hubble sphere when their comoving coordinates intersected our past light cone. Thus, they were receding superluminally when they emitted the photons we see now.

Re: Olbers' paradox

#22

It might seem like a paradox from our perspective, but there is good possibility that like fish in water - our senses & instruments just haven't evolved to perceive and function out of water (off earth) A good possible explanation would be that the seemingly empty void of space is chalk full of dark matter scientists assume makes up 95% of the universe and our eyes can't see it like a dog can't see color, and this in…

No need for dark matter. As it states in explanation paragraph, according to big bang theory, in the beginning stages there were light everywhere and the universe was not even transparent. So according to this, when we look at the sky now we should see that light if we look far enough. But we don't. Reason for that is that as universe expanded, that light emitted from the early stages got "stretched out" and shifted from visible light to microwave length. That's what we call cosmic microwave background. So it's not a possibility - it's fact.
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