Editing 2764: Cosmological Nostalgia Content
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| titletext = Later renouncing clickbait, Einstein called his inclusion of cosmological content in general relativity the biggest blunder of his career. | | titletext = Later renouncing clickbait, Einstein called his inclusion of cosmological content in general relativity the biggest blunder of his career. | ||
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− | + | Like many xkcds, this comic is a figurative {{w|Portmanteau|multimanteau}}, in this case a combination of "{{w|cosmological constant}}" (an astrophysics term to quantify the rate of expansion of the universe) and "[https://movementstrategy.com/editorial/nostalgia-social-media/ nostalgia content]" (clickbait marketing aimed at a specific age group referencing pop culture from their youth). The [https://tvtropes.org canonical examples] of nostalgia content are "[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/only-90s-kids--2 Only 90s Kids Remember...]" and "[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/feel-old-yet Feel Old yet?]". | |
− | + | In cosmology, z is the symbol for {{w|Redshift|redshift}}, which is the phenomenon where photons travelling from an object that is moving away from the observer exhibits an increase in wavelength, resulting in its colour shifting towards the red end of the spectrum. Due to the accelerating expansion of the universe, objects that are further away from us are moving away from us at a faster velocity, resulting in higher redshift. As light has finite velocity, it takes a longer time for light from faraway objects to arrive at the observer.[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#Spaceflight_and_astronomy] So the light observed at the present must have been emitted by the faraway object further back in time. Megan is stating that only people that appear to the observer with high redshift (z=10) will have existed sufficiently further back in the past to remember when the first stars were still forming. Megan also has a red tint (she is drawn in the colour [https://www.color-hex.com/color/462424 #462424], a very dark red; here is a comparison of #462424 and black: <span style="background-color: #462424"> </span> <span style="background-color: black"> </span>), indicating that she is one such z=10 kid. This would mean that she was born around 500 million years after the universe was formed, or almost 13 billion years ago. However, the James Webb Space Telescope famously discovered fully formed, large, bright galaxies around z=10 (of which the only explanations forthcoming so far are {{w|primordial black hole}}s[https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac927f/meta][https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09391] or {{w|axion}} miniclusters[https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.043502]) so Megan's nostalgia may be somewhat confabulatory. | |
− | + | White Hat, meanwhile, is referencing the fact that the universe has {{w|Scale factor (cosmology)|three eras}}: radiation dominated, matter dominated, and dark energy dominated. As the universe expands, the density of radiation and matter decreases due to their dilution, causing the universe, which first started off being dominated by radiation, to then become dominated by matter, then by dark energy (which does not dilute as the universe expands). Dark energy dominated era, which is when "dark energy started accelerating the universe's expansion" started around 5 billion years ago while {{w|Evolution of bacteria|bacteria evolved around 3 billion years ago}}, meaning that they evolved closer to dark energy domination than to today. | |
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− | White Hat, meanwhile, is referencing the fact that the universe has {{w|Scale factor (cosmology)|three eras}}: radiation dominated, matter dominated and dark energy dominated. As the universe expands, the density of radiation and matter decreases due to their dilution, causing the universe, which first started off being dominated by radiation, to then become dominated by matter, then by dark energy (which | ||
The title and title text play with the similarity in sound between 'content' and 'constant', segueing between web(page) content and cosmological constant. | The title and title text play with the similarity in sound between 'content' and 'constant', segueing between web(page) content and cosmological constant. | ||
− | The title text refers to Einstein's inclusion of the {{w|Cosmological constant|cosmological constant}} to his theory of general relativity in order to attain a static model of the universe, which he later removed, reportedly referring to it as his "biggest blunder". Cosmological constant has, today, been generally accepted as a part of the current cosmological model, relating to the concept of dark energy | + | The title text refers to Einstein's inclusion of the {{w|Cosmological constant|cosmological constant}} to his theory of general relativity in order to attain a static model of the universe, which he later removed, reportedly referring to it as his "biggest blunder". Cosmological constant has, today, been generally accepted as a part of the current cosmological model, relating to the concept of dark energy. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
:[Megan (with a red tint) holds both her arms out and up while she is talking to Cueball to the left of her. To the right of Megan White Hat is holding both arms out and down while he is talking to Ponytail to the right of him.] | :[Megan (with a red tint) holds both her arms out and up while she is talking to Cueball to the left of her. To the right of Megan White Hat is holding both arms out and down while he is talking to Ponytail to the right of him.] | ||
− | :Megan: Only | + | :Megan: Only Z=10 kids remember watching the cool dark gas that suffused the universe being eaten away by expanding bubbles of plasma around the first stars! |
:White Hat: Want to feel old? Bacteria evolved closer to when dark energy started accelerating the universe's expansion than to today! | :White Hat: Want to feel old? Bacteria evolved closer to when dark energy started accelerating the universe's expansion than to today! | ||