Perspectives

No sign of gravitational lensing in the ., WFPC2, HST, NASA ., WFPC2, HST,

cosmic microwave et al background

Ron Samec ravitational lensing is a Ggravitational-optical effect whereby a background object like a distant quasar is magnified, distorted Andrew Fruchter (STScI) Image by and brightened by a foreground galaxy. It is alleged that the cluster of galaxies Abell 2218, distorts and magnifies It is one of the consequences of general light from galaxies behind it. relativity and is so well understood that fectly smooth black body spectrum of sioned by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe it now appears in standard optics text 5,6 books. Objects that are too far to be 2.725 K with very tiny fluctuations in and by Hartnett. They showed that seen are ‘focused’ by an intervening the pattern on the 70 μK level. These a homogeneous cloud mixture of car- concentration of matter and bought ‘bumps’ or patterns in the CMB are bon/silicate dust and iron or carbon into view to the earth based astronomer. supposedly the ‘seeds’ from which whiskers could produce such a back- One of the most interesting photos of the galaxies formed. Why is it so ground radiation. If the CMB is not the effects of gravitational lensing smooth? Alan Guth ‘solved’ this puz- of cosmological origin, all the ad hoc ideas that have been added to support is shown in the HST image of Abell zle by postulating that the universe was the big bang theory (like inflation) 2218 by Andrew Fruchter1 (Space originally a very tiny entity in thermal fall apart. telescope Science Institute) et al., equilibrium. It ‘inflated’ from about -35 -24 Thus the CMB may not be the with the WFPC2 camera,2 on the 10 to 10 seconds after the big bang ‘whimper’ of the big bang, but just a Hubble Space Telescope (NASA) (see at many times the speed of light and rather homogeneous but dirty expul- illustration). In this image, the cluster then it began its ordinary expansion. sion of a nearby supernova.7 of galaxies, Abell 2218 is distorting The largest foreground concentra- tions of matter in the universe, which and magnifying light from galaxies References behind it. They appear as ring arcs of cause appreciable gravitational lens- faint light. This cluster is about three ing, are galactic clusters. The WMAP 1. , 9 May million light years distant. One of the (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy 2006. most distant objects discovered is a Probe) recently imaged the CMB of 2. , 9 May 2006. galaxy that was detected at 5.6 GLY the full sky to a high resolution. One (5.6 billion light years) distant using would expect to see gravitational 3. Lieu, R. and Mitaz, J.P.D., On the absence of lensing distortions caused by the fore- gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave Abell 2218 as a ‘lens’. background, Astrophysical Journal 628:583, It is alleged that the farthest known ground galactic clusters in the CMB 2005. 3 background radiation sources in the ‘acoustic’ patterns. Lieu and Mitaz in 4. UAH (the University of Alabama in Hunts- cosmos are what we call the cosmic their recent article have shown math- ville) News and Events, 8 February 2005, . This was supposed to be formed when in the CMB are absent! 5. Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C., Metallic photons were released in the big bang ‘But you don’t see this fluctua- particles in astronomy, Astrophysics and Space decoupling event when the universe tion’, said Lieu. ‘There appear to Science 147:245–256, 1988. became ‘transparent’. The tempera- be no lensing effects whatsoever. 6. Hartnett, J.G., CMB Conundrums, Journal of ture this occurred at was about 3000 This lack of variation is a serious Creation 20(2):10–11, 2006. K, when normal hydrogen gas formed, problem.’4 7. However, it is hard, in my thinking, to conceive supposedly some 380,000 years after This is a major blow to the that any natural manifestation could produce so smooth a pattern. the big bang. The space had spread big bang theory where the existence by a factor of 1000, dropping the of the CMB is the main evidence for observable blackbody temperature of its occurrence. this event to 3 K and forming this all This may mean that the CMB is pervasive background to the universe. not ‘cosmological’ at all, but rather a The background gives almost a per- ‘local’ effect, possibly like that envi-

JOURNAL OF CREATION 20(2) 2006