Comment by echelon
4 days ago
I have immense respect for astrophysicists, but the data we're dealing with is extremely far away and relies on a lot of interlocking assumptions.
I stumbled upon this paper [1, 2] last night that challenges the CMB, and thus the underpinning of much of our understanding about the age and evolution of the universe. As a layperson, I don't know the impact factor of the "Nuclear Physics B" journal - if this is just junk or if this is a claim that will pan out.
My point is that it feels like we're building on a lot of observations that are all super indirect. I know I'm just a layperson, but that feels weird when reading assertions about these things.
Our understanding of the universe is relatively new. We don't have a lot of energy or resolution in our observations. The fact that we can sniff the molecular spectra of exoplanets is so amazing and that part feels totally concrete and rock-solid. But I get skeptical when I see claims that we know how the universe began or how it will end. Is our evidence that good? Are our models? Are we basing everything on assumptions?
> But I get skeptical when I see claims that we know how the universe began or how it will end
Absolutely, but you are interpreting it in the rewritten headline money making attention grabbing version.
The original version of the claims always say that from some observation, experiments, and projection from known models it derives that the universe likely began this way, or will end that way, etc.
That means, of all the going hypothesis, this might be the one with the best chances of being true, or close to the truth. It's not an absolute, but its the one that has the most chances due to the evidence behind it.