Re: [Phys-L] scientific method as applied to a paradox

[Brian Whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net>]

 Here are some relevent Nobels:https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1978/press-release/

Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson were provided with a satellite receiver using a steerable folded horn antenna which had been used by Bell Lab for satellite transmissions with Telstar and Echo. They noted anomalously high amplitude reception at 7 cm wavelength for which the receiver was tuned. They proceded to eliminate Sun transmision and Ground retransmission etc. and connected the signal with the spectrum of black body radiation at 3K. This led to identifying the signal as CMR.
Some later work in the general area:(Nobel Speech 2011 Physics Saul Perimutter, Brian Schmidt,  Adam Riess))https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2011/ceremony-speech/


"To everyone’s utter amazement, the supernovae seemed to be much too dim – weaker than expected if the expansion of the universe had slowed down. Instead, the universe has been expanding faster and faster."
(Nobel Biographical speech Weiss 2017)https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2017/weiss/biographical/

for Weiss, Barish & (Kip) Thorne
   
   - "By the early 1970s it was clear that a satellite mission would be more definitive in making measurements of the spectrum and the isotropy of the cosmic background radiation. By placing the instruments outside of the atmosphere in Earth orbit, one could get long integration times to improve the signal to noise but also have time to test for systematics. Furthermore, without the absorption in the atmosphere, it would be possible to add enough wavelength coverage to separate the cosmic background radiation from the emission of nearer astronomical foregrounds. John Mather recognized this and acted on it. As a graduate student at Berkeley he conceived of COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) and after graduating he pulled a team together including me to actually do it. He and John Boslough wrote a book about COBE, The Very First Light2 which includes much of the story of the project."
   -    

Weiss bio was, I found enthralling. An MIT drop-out, a failed love affair, a cesium atom fountain for an atomic clock. (Of the kind now being used for exquisite gravimeters.)

As to Olber's Paradox - it is interesting to speculate on the distance limit at which visible light from stars/galaxies can be observed. From a source UV big bang wavelength of 100 nmto a detected CMG peak of 1 millimeter walength, the region of visible starlight would be less than 13.8 billion light years away.   
    On Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 07:47:03 PM CDT, John Denker via Phys-l <phys-l@mail.phys-l.org> wrote:  
 
 On 4/20/22 2:24 PM, bernard cleyet wrote:

> https://www.3towers.com/Essays/OlbersParadox/Olbers01.html 

An important part of the scientific method involves reading
the literature.

The cosmic background radiation was measured in 1964.
The Nobel prize for this was awarded in 1978.
The Tim Hunter article was published in 1989.

So why does the article say
> > Modern cosmology in the 1980’s explained the paradox
???????

Bob and Arno would say that there *is* radiation coming
from every direction in the sky, just as Olbers imagined,
and it started out as bright as the surface of any star,
but during the journey it got redshifted down into the
the EHF band.
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