What is the Biggest Flaw in the Big Bang Theory?

What is the “cold spot” on the cosmic microwave background? Why shouldn’t it exist? What are some possible explanations for it, and why are they unsatisfying?

0:00 - Intro
2:26 - How Do We Measure The Cosmic Microwave Background?
16:51 - Is the Cold Spot Even Interesting?
30:51 - Super-void or Super-dud?
35:10 - New Physics or Nothing New?
37:56 - Thank You

Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE!

[christophmessner]

The speaker says: “the photon gains energy when it enters a void” a hundred times, although it is not true that any particle gains energy when it enters nothing; it just doesn’t loose any energy and continues with the same speed.

[DLees]

I wish you had given more detail explaining how the signal is sifted from the noise. What human decisions are involved in the process, what's the justification for those decisions etc.

[itsjustameme]

When I look at the map I can see the cold spot - it stands out just like you said.
But what stands out more to me at least is the warm belt slashing diagonally just above it. I am assuming that since that hasn’t meritted a youtube video that it is less of a problem. Perhaps it is better understood or something. I just found it a bit arbitrary that it was completely ignored here.

[Faifstarr]

If the specific cold spot did not exist we would be obsessing over the next odd coldest one in line that does exist. [EDIT] P.S. you did a great job explaining the magnitude of difference between the one and the next tho <3

[hyperhybrid]

Approx 23:20 onwards he talks about light passing. A former housemate, Mr Patel, explained in basic terms, ' In the beginning, there was a light, Lord Vishnu travelled up following the light while Lord Shiva travelled down chasing the light, but the light was infinite without end'. A topic Carl Sagan discussed in his book Cosmos, he also mentions the Koran and other faiths and civilizations. Basically, we humans have created our own science histories.

[billc]

This is the best video I have ever seen that explains why "We don't know Jack Sh!t about the Universe". Aren't we lucky that Penzias and Wilson didn't just decide that the signals they saw were caused by Pigeon poop in the antenna.

[DataRae-AIEngineer]

This is great! Very informative, and your voice is great. I think a lot of astronomers think we want to sleep to their videos - they even title their videos that way. But some of us want to actually learn this stuff :) Glad I found your channel.

[geordiedog]

I think about science and its messiness and then I look at my mobile smart phone and I think……. Nah, science is ok.

[amlord]

Shouldn't gravitational lensing affect our observations of the CMB?

[UnKnown-xsjt]

Love, love, love your content!
Suggestion: please consider demonstrating visually what 1 in 1, 000 or 1, 000, 000 or 1, 000, 000, 000 so non scientist/mathematicians can ‘see’ how small a value this is. This may also help to understand how accurate our understanding of CMB and our theories regarding origin of the universe!
Keep up the great work!

[nicolascortes]

I still observe with amazement how science still keeps alive a theory that starts from nothing without knowing what nothing is.

[LuisDiaz-qgeg]

Shouting is a nice metaphor, but a reminder for 14:02 that you couldn't assign shouts to galaxies even if the expansion beyond the visible universe hadn't happened, the reason the metaphor allows it is that there is a faster medium of transmission (light) than the one measured (sound), but with the CMB you are getting signal from the faster medium of transmission already, it's all light

[peterjones]

Always provides an entertaining commentary on all things to do with astronomy and science. Thank you Dr Paul for sharing your vast knowledge.

[ErgoCogita]

There is always an observable lull in wave fronts given a large enough area. There are several others within the CMB that may not be to the extent which the cold spot exhibits but it isn't outside of possibility. That being said, it's still rather interesting.

[waynecook]

The person shouting ten times louder than every one else is my ex wife. Thats my explanation of dark energy.

[timothycivis]

Fingers crossed that you will do the video at 11:00 on timer. But thank you for the wonderful podcasts in the meantime.

[KaliFissure]

Funny all those fully formed spiral galaxies at z=14 though

[ruspj]

wouldnt a problem with it being a void be voids growing over time?
it wouldnt just need to be way bigger than the biggest known void (the bootes void) but would also have needed to be that size long long ago meaning it would be way bigger by now. is their a warmer (and probably wider) cold spot/area visable and associated with the bootes void? would gravitational lensing from galaxies surrounding a void also reduce the ammount of light from its direction adding to its reduced temprature?
curious - like with a world map even a oval map is distorted to create a flat image. isnt there a method to orient the CMB map to place a location being studied at the center reducing any distortion of its shape.

[blackbirdpie]

The problem with the whole "shouting" scenario is that people aren't shouting when they were still all in the same place, they were already spread out. But you should tell it to include the part where the people are all crammed into a single elevator when they shout, then they start to move apart. Because if the big bang is correct, you must perform it while everything is near everything else. And since matter does not spread at the speed of light, the bang passes everyone, as they are spreading apart. In other words, the light from a galaxy 13b. LY away was not 13b LY away when it happened it was right in our lap.

[tehphoebus]

Whoa, thank you for the birthday gift.