9 ms·
No, not really. One theory is that eventually things will slow and then collapse again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Crunch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
by knappe 8y ago
No, not really. One theory is that eventually things will slow and then collapse again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Crunch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Crunch
Taken to the extreme, this expansion and collapse has been happening over and over again in a cyclical fashion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_model
- pixl97 8y agoThe shape of the universe currently prevents this. For what we can tell the universe is flat, which means at no point will it collapse on itself, unless something major changes. That said, major changes have happened, around 8 billion years ago expansion appears to have sped up.
- earenndil 8y agoI'm no expert (so correct me if I'm wrong), but from what I'm read, flat, concave, and convex universes are all possibilities and they would all look flat to us because our measurements take place on such a small scale.
- sandworm101 8y agoOur measurements occur across billions of light-years. By comparing redshift agaist the standard candles we measure relative speeds of vastly distant objects. And given the speed of light, we are also measuring what those speeds were billions of years ago. It is a very big ruler.
- roywiggins 8y agoWe've measured the flatness of the universe on the scale of the cosmic microwave background, which is essentially as big a ruler as could possibly exist. https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/sgoals_parameters_geom.html https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/sgoals_parameters_geom.htm... https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_shape.html https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_shape.html
- rkagerer 8y agoThose darn flatspacers