Expert: Tom Whiting - 3/8/2009

Question
I have a few questions that I was hoping you could answer, from a real astronomers point of view.
1. What are your thoughts on the Big Bang theory?
2. If we were to take a peek at the galaxies right now, would they isolated or merging?
3. How would that effect the end of the universe?

Answer
Hi Meg,
1. Did you use the word "theory" in that first question because
you are not an advocate of same?  Or because you just copied it
out of the textbook?  Why was the question not "What are your
thoughts on the Big Bang?"

No matter, I can still answer the question because the Big Bang
is no longer "a belief"...like stuff that we have no data or observations, like the Virgin Birth, the Burning Bush...those are
beliefs with no need for a alternate answer/explanation because there is no supporting, or conflicting, data available.

But with things like Big Bang (and even evolution today) we DO have data and observations that support, and need to be explained, so they are all in the accept/reject catagory now.  If you accept, fine. But if you reject, then the monkey is on YOUR back (forgive the pun) to explain why the Universe is expanding and what's the correct answer to the Cosmic Background radiation discovered in 1965 which we interpret as the remnant radiation from the Big Bang, and later confirmed by COBE and WMAP spacecraft satellites?
(With evolution, it's how come our DNA matches up to nearly 99%
the other primates, not to mention the physical characteristics
and the fossil record of same?)
{And it does no good to say, "Well God just did it that way...." as that begs the question. That answer still does not provide a definitive answer to our data, and therefore not germane to the question. If one cannot give a reasonable definitive answer to our data stated above, then your rejection....IS meaningless in science and is just disregarded as being ignorant to the data and observations at hand.

Now that I've given the ground rules used in science, I can answer
your question; I have been a Big Bang advocate since 1965 when
Bell Lab Technicians Robert Wilson and Arno Pensias discovered the
CBR radiation with their primitive radio telescope. (and later confirmed by COBE and WMAP satellite spacecraft).  Coincidently, I
am also a confirmed.... thestic (not athestic) evolutionist ever since our DNA was shown to match up at over 99% DNA with the other close primates.
So I don't have to give an alternate answer like the rejectionists
do.  One just has to accept the fact that that was God's methodology,
irrespective of other "weird" literal interpretationists interpretation of the Christian Bible. (See PS below).  I accept what
science is telling us is true and accurate.

2.  We do "peek" at the galaxies, right now. True, we're seeing them
some 100 million years earlier than right now, but that's a drop in
the bucket time wise, in the total life of a galaxy... not very many galaxies are isolated; most are part of a group of galaxies called galaxy clusters, (We're in the Local Group) and some are
merging all the time. The big ones 'canibalize' the smaller ones,
then merge with the bigger ones. Our Milky Way has 'eaten' some
20 other dwarf galaxies in the past, and are due to collide with,
or merge with, the giant Andromeda Galaxy in 4 or 5 billion more
years. These are separate observations and have no effect on the
end of the Universe.  (How does your actions of going to see a ball
game or going to a birthday party, affect the end of your life
or your death?  It doesn't.)

3. Now that we know that the Universe is expanding and even
accelerating it's expansion rate as time goes by (the space, not
the matter)...we now can estimate the end of the Universe in several
hundred trillion years. The Universe will either suffer a 'heat
death' as the stars use up all of their hydrogen fuel, OR we will
suffer the "Big Rip". As the expansion goes faster and faster near the end hundreds of trillions of years from now, eventually whole galaxies will be ripped apart, then solar systems, and finally atoms themselves with just be ripped apart due to the exponential expansion rate of space expanding.
Notice science has eliminated the Big Crunch as there will be no
contraction in the future...the expansion is forever, and is actually
accelerating as time goes on. So question #2 has no effect on #3.
Hope all this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA

PS....The literal interpretationists were wrong about a central
Earth for over 2000 years, from around 600 BC until 1600 AD until
Copernicus and Galileo said, Hey wait a minute, that can't be right...Strike One. The literal said that the Earth not only was
the center, but it didn't move...it was stationary. WRONG
strike two.  And Bruno was burned at the stake for advocating that
the sun was a star, and all stars are suns. But the literal interpretationists said that can't be right because the sun was 'created' on one day and stars on a different day, so the sun cannot be a star.  WRONG...STRIKE THREE and you're out!
So the literal interpretationists of the Bible don't have too pure
a past track record, having been wrong at least 3 times in the
past.  And they are wrong about Big Bang/DNA/evolution today...
strikes four, five, and six.
For what it's worth,
Tom