Dark matter...i think i know what it is...check it out

[sm0ky2]

  I have always wondered how Astronimers have said that with the Hubble we can now see back in time to almost the beginning of the Universe some 15 Billion years. It seems to me that is saying we are on the leading edge of the expanding Universe? Or the middle looking 15 billion years in our past in all directions? I just can't seem to get my mind around infinity

Assuming that the Hubble telescope can actually "see" a distance of 15 billion light years away, then the theory is that "what we are seeing", occured 15 billion years ago. This assumption is based on a constant speed of light, that took 15 billion years to arrive at our current location.

Wether or not 15 billion years is even remotely close to the "begining of time", is still theoretical at this point. Furthermore, the direction we are looking in would make a HUGE difference in this point. If we are looking towards the center of the universe, then that would make sense.

But if we are looking towards the outer edges of the universe, and observing something that occured 15 billion years ago, and that is 15 billion light years away from our current location,....  then the universe would have to be much much older...

Since we do not know "where we are" in relationship to the center or edges of the universe,. then we cannot use such a deduction to determine when the universe began, or if it ever had a begining at all.

However, if the speed of light is not constant throughout all parts of the universe, then we cannot soley use distance to determine some time in the past that the observed event occured.

It is also important to note that the "expansion" of the universe, as we know it, is not an absolute fact. It is a theory, based on a number of observations of the movement of galaxies that are moving further away from one another. Given the vast number of galaxies in the visible universe, one could also deduce that the universe is "contracting", based on a number of observations of the movement of galaxies that are moving closer to one another.

It is quite possible that the "boundaries" of the universe are neither expanding nor contracting, but are at a constant distance from the center, and the galaxies are simply moving within the constant universe.

For every galactic observation that supports the Big Bang Theory, there is another pair galaxies that contradict it.... Which is the reason it is still considered a theory. (albeit a commonly accepted one)

[NickZ]

  I for one don't believe in the big bang theory. As science would also need to account for where all that matter and dark matter came from in the first place, for it to be just able get big banged into existance. Everything comes from a preexisting source, and if energy cannot be created or destroyed, it sort of blows that theory all apart.
   Maybe there is no beginning or end to the univers,  and there never will be...   and TIME does not exist, as we think it does.  Or even those distances relative to light years, as light does even really travel, at all, it appears to, but what is called the "speed of light" is actually the rate at which it polarizes. There is no movement in waves, nor bending of light, as we are still being taught in school.  There is also no light or heat coming from Our Sun to our planet, as light is being manufactured or created here in our atmosphere, as well as on all other light producing planets, and nebula, but no in empty space which is very cold and dark.

[onthecuttingedge2005]

  I for one don't believe in the big bang theory. As science would also need to account for where all that matter and dark matter came from in the first place, for it to be just able get big banged into existance. Everything comes from a preexisting source, and if energy cannot be created or destroyed, it sort of blows that theory all apart.
   Maybe there is no beginning or end to the univers,  and there never will be...   and TIME does not exist, as we think it does.  Or even those distances relative to light years, as light does even really travel, at all, it appears to, but what is called the "speed of light" is actually the rate at which it polarizes. There is no movement in waves, nor bending of light, as we are still being taught in school.  There is also no light or heat coming from Our Sun to our planet, as light is being manufactured or created here in our atmosphere, as well as on all other light producing planets, and nebula, but no in empty space which is very cold and dark.

recycle, recycle, recycle. it is what the universe does.

[NickZ]

   To convert one form of energy to another more usable form, yes. But, we are still being taught error as fact.  Similar to seeing the world as being flat, when we know that it is not. 
   Light, heat, or waves do not travel, at all, but all have different polarization rates. The Univers revolves, while we recycle.
 

[onthecuttingedge2005]

The Univers revolves

If the Universe revolves then how does one explain why the Milky way is on a 'head on collision' course with the galaxy of Andromeda.  .---><---.