Home page > FET versus current theories > The cosmic microwave radiation and dark energy
The cosmic microwave radiation was predicted to be a remnant of the big bang and when it was discovered it was claimed to be the final proof of its validity. It is said to be the radiation that appeared in the first few moments of creation along with matter but was trapped because matter was so dense.
After 300,000 years the density of matter decreased to the point where the radiation broke free and because it was at an equilibrium temperature the photon energies resembled that of a black body at 3,000K.
Since that time, the expansion of space has supposedly stretched every photon so that it now appears in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The big bang predictions for the temperature of the radiation that were made before its discovery were much higher than its actual value and the theory had to be adjusted to fit with the data. This was easy to do as it only involved claiming that the radiation broke free when the temperature was 3,000K.
The brightness/distance relationship of stars is less consistent with an expanding model of space than for a steady state model.
I have read that the intensity of the microwave radiation is different from than predicted from the big bang but I have not seen any serious discussion about this.
There are features about the radiation that are more consistent with it being a phenomenon associated with our solar system rather than originating from throughout the universe.
The shape of the CMR is not really that of a black body because the slope of the curve at longer wavelengths does not decrease anywhere near as fast as it should unless it is disguised by plotting against wavenumber and not wavelength.
Dark energy is predicted to exist in order to explain why the rate of expansion of the universe apparently accelerated some few billion years after its creation.
No one has any idea what dark energy could be. But just as the big bang theory arose from the misinterpretation of the red shift of starlight, the notion of dark energy has arisen from the misinterpretation of the extra dimming of distant supernovae as explained in FET.
I have included dark energy along with cosmic microwave radiation because the two subjects are intimately linked.
Because FET predicts a steady state universe it needs to find an alternative source of the CMR. Because it is similar to the radiation from a black body and because photons lose energy as they travel through space it must be a local effect.
I believe that the microwave radiation comes from the Oort cloud objects that are predicted to form a complete shell of bodies surrounding the solar system. Extrapolation of the surface temperatures of the planets with distance from the Sun puts these objects at just the right temperature to explain the wavelength of the radiation.
Now if the Oort cloud consists of comets etc. then the largest of these would produce the strongest signal and account for most of the observed curve. But we would also expect there to be lots of smaller objects as well as dust and therefore these would be colder than the largest comets because they would have very little gravitational heating. They would therefore only contribute to the longer wavelength side of the curve as observed.
Putting the source of the radiation around our solar system would also explain the observed anisotropy.
It is now obvious that the extra dimming of distant supernovae is due to Oort cloud objects passing between the observer and distant objects. The amount of light obscured is insignificant for nearby supernovae but becomes increasingly important as the perceived size of a distant supernova decreases to that of these bodies.