Expanding Universe

[Raef Fanous]

Scientists just confirmed the existence of "Dark Energy", a mysterious repulsive force that acts in opposite to gravity. Scientists today do not know what this "Dark Energy" is, but they know that it is causing the entire universe to expand at an increasing rate (Learn more: Dark Energy). However scientists are sure that the universe is expanding in a very special way: Do you remember how a rose opens up? That is, the outer petals move outwards more than the inner petals?

Imagine that those petals have galaxies on them and that we are at the center of the rose. Now imagine this rose opening up; the farther out the petals are the faster their recession away from the center (where we are). Well this is exactly how the universe expands around us; the farther galaxies are from us the faster their recession away from us.

[Quran 55.37] If the heavens ripped and it were a rose like paint...

Here God assures skeptics about Paradise: if the heaven ripped open like this then Paradise will as surely contain so and so...

Do you remember how an ambulance siren sounds like when it approaches you? And how it sounds like when it recedes from you? The sound pitch changes, right? Similarly when a light source approaches you or recedes from you its colors change. If it is approaching you the colors shift towards the blue, and if it is receding from you its colors shift towards the red, the faster it recedes the redder it appears. Today we know that galaxies are rushing away from us from redshifting of their light. The more distant galaxies are the more reddish their colors appear to us. Do you remeber how paint looks like when it is applied? That is, the colors intensity is not even but rather it changes with distance?

Similarly the more distant galaxies are the more reddish their colors appear to us. This is because the farther galaxies are the faster they are receding from us (like a rose).

All observers anywhere in the universe also see the universe expanding away from them the same way (like a rose). Hence everyone in the universe thinks that he is at the center of the Big Bang!!! This is because the Big Bang did not have a center. See, if you continue walking on Earth in the same direction you will circle Earth and eventually come back to where you started; right? Similarly when you continue traveling through the universe in the same direction you might come back to where you started; we still don't know this for sure. But what we are sure of is that every observer in the universe thinks that he is at the center of the Big Bang; every observer in the universe sees the universe expanding away from him like a rose.

Learn More: Expanding Universe in Quran

[laney]

i think verse 37 surah ar-rahman(55:37) has 2 meanings,first its about expanding universe as mentioned above and another one this verse also tell us about the supernova:
In reference to the Doomsday , the Holy quran records this stage in the life of massive stars in the following Holy verse "When the sky disintegrates, and turns RED rose colored like paint." On the doomsday , all these kinds of stars will come to their end , their explosion in most cases will be like the red rose , in this life God gives us image of what will be the end of life like , the Holy Quran is in conformity with Science..below is copy&paste from wikipedia.com about RED giant:

"..Very high mass stars instead develop to supergiant stars that wander back and forth horizontally over the HR(Hertzsprung-Russell)diagram, at the right end constituting REDsupergiants. These usually end their life as type II supernova.."

[url][URL=http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nebula2p.jpg][/url][/url]The picture above is taken by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope of the "Cat's Eye Nebula." It is an exploding star 3,000 light years away. They should have called it the " Red Rose Nebula." As the Quran states in Sura 55 "Ar-Rahman".

[url][URL=http://img16.imageshack.us/my.php?image=supernova2k.jpg][/url][/url]
..this discovery is another prove that Allah is true..Qur'an is true..Muhammad is true..hereafter is true..paradise is true..hell is true..and Islam is true..

[Raef Fanous]

I know that the above image of the Cat's Eye Nebula is very popular on moslem websites however it is wrong. It is wrong because of two reasons:

1)The colors in this image are false colors (not the true colors). In optical (the light that a human eye can see) it has different colors.

2)The Quran speaks about the heavens expanding like a rose and not a star dying like a rose.

This is the true X-Ray colors of the Cat's Eye Nebula by Chandra Observatory:

You can find the answer in:

"Astrophysics", Judith A. Irwin, Wiley (2007).

Examples of planetary nebulae, the end result of the evolution of low mass stars like our Sun. On the left is NGC 6751 and on the right is NGC 6543 (the Cat's Eye Nebula). The colour scheme is red = [N II] ( 6584), green = [O III] ( 5007 A) and blue = V band. The square brackets mean that the spectral lines are 'forbidden'.

So the colors of your image of the Cat's Eye Nebula are the not true colors. I am sorry but the above statement about the Cat's Eye Nebula on Moslem websites is wrong.

However the Quran correctly describes the expansion of the entire universe like a rose. Learn more: Expanding Universe in Quran

[laney]

[list]1)The colors in this image are false colors (not the true colors). In optical (the light that a human eye can see) it has different colors.

yes i know the color is artificial..but how about redgiant explosion.?is it they not maintain their red color when they're explode?

[Raef Fanous]

Red giants do not explode. They just shed their outer layers.

The evolution of stars depends on their mass. Small stars like our Sun eventually exhaust the helium in the core and evolve into a red giant phase. The star will then go through a stage of mass loss via strong stellar winds, pulsating instability, and/or other forms of mass loss. Since the greatly expanded outer layers are tenuous and weakly gravitationally bound, they are easily expelled, forming a nebula that can take on many shapes. These are called planetary nebulae. One example is this Cat's Eye Nebula. No explosions but they maintain their red color during this phase. Later they become White Dwarfs.

Learn how large stars explode: Iron in Quran

[laney]

[j]Red giants do not explode. They just shed their outer layers.

sorry..actually what i mean is REDsupergiant explosion,not redgiant.
..from wikipedia:

"..Very high mass stars instead develop to supergiant stars that wander back and forth horizontally over the HR(Hertzsprung-Russell)diagram, at the right end constituting REDsupergiants. These usually end their life as type II supernova.."

..and from Qur'an(55:37):

"When the sky disintegrates(so horror), and turns RED rose colored like paint." ..

isn't the word disintegrates/'so horror' here refer to supernova?

[Raef Fanous]

"When the sky disintegrates(so horror), and turns RED rose colored like paint." ..

isn't the word disintegrates/'so horror' here refer to supernova?

The problem is that this verse was mistranslated from Arabic. The Quran uses the word "Inshakat" which simply means "ripped":

[Quran 55.37] If the heaven ripped (Inshakat in Arabic) and it were a rose like paint...

Inshakat in Arabic means ripped (like cloth is ripped) however it was mistranslated to "disintegrated".

The other misconception is that this verse talks about stars. Well where does it mention stars? It says "If the Heaven ripped..."

Moreover, scientists today use the same word "ripped" to describe how the universe expands (the same word that the Quran used 1400 years ago):

Scientists just confirmed the existence of "Dark Energy", a mysterious repulsive force that acts in opposite to gravity. As the distance increases, the attractive gravitational force decreases but this mysterious repulsive force increases. This repulsive force is pushing galaxies apart; the greater the distance the greater the repulsion. Scientists today do not know what this "Dark Energy" is, but they know that it is causing the entire universe to expand at an increasing rate.

See this zoomed in fabric:

Imagine there is a map printed on it. Now stretch this fabric equally in both the x and y directions. The distances between the weaves increase however all distances on the map remain proportional, right? Well this is exactly how the universe expands around us: All distances increase however they remain proportional. This is how expansion of spacetime occurs. This is why scientists say that this Dark Energy is "ripping" the Universe apart.

Now how the universe will end in the future is a different story. It might end with a Big Rip, Big Chill or a Big Crunch, depending on this Dark Energy:

NASA recently ruled out the first scenario (No Big Rip; see also: Universe Today). This leaves the universe with only two possible endings: Big Chill or Big Crunch, depending on what this Dark Energy turns out to be.

However today this Dark Energy is ripping the universe very slowly (when compared to the Big Rip or the Inflation that occurred during the Big Bang).

Learn More: Expanding Universe in Quran

[littlefish]

I am of the opinion that we need to re-examine our cosmic theories with an open mind. In light of the new data coming from Hubble space telescope. To hang on to old ideas and patch them up when new evidence makes them impossible (or highly improbable) is dangerous. The release of old theories is always seen as radical and is fought against by the establishment. But new theories are needed. Here is a simple test to see how open minded or establishment oriented your thinking is: The Big Bang is the only possible explanation, and an eternally existing universe is out of the realm of possibility. (I agree / I disagree). Unfortunately the recent theoretical patches that have been added to the Big Bang theory have been almost as whimsical as the addition of epicycles to Ptolemaic theory. Buyer beware, when the science comes with a caveat that says: "don't try to test this theory, because it cannot be detected in any way, it just exists." Ever since the Cosmological Constant was proposed (the first baseless patch), we should have started with a fresh eye for new possible explanations of our universe's existence. The acceptance of undetectable phenomenon was popularized by quantum theorists, but has the (originally intended) sarcastic tone of Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment been lost on cosmologists? The success of quantum theory is the envy of cosmologists, but not a model of how to proceed.
If any one has read any of Eric J. Lerner's work, please tell me what you think.