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More specifically expansion isn’t movement per se, it just appears to be movement. It’s actually the expansion of distance between points without energy applied
by fnordpiglet 3y ago
More specifically expansion isn’t movement per se, it just appears to be movement. It’s actually the expansion of distance between points without energy applied.
There may be a time when expansion makes things appear to move faster than the speed of light away from each other, but that time will mean we can never observe anything and the universe has effectively ripped itself apart. As has been noted this can already be observed at large distances as the expansion accumulating between us and those distant points creates the appearance of faster than light travel. [0]
That happens only in certain situations for certain constant assumptions and certain mathematics and physics assumptions, which can be totally overturned and we are in no way sure expansion is accelerating, slowing, going at the same rate, or even our empirical observations that support expansion aren’t caused by some as of now unknown physical process.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_volume https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_volume
- ithkuil 3y ago> without energy being applied I'm confused. Why is the cosmological constant then also called dark energy if it's not equivalent to there being some energy in empty space?
- fnordpiglet 3y agoDark energy isn’t energy in a conventional sense (hence its disclaimer). In fact it isn’t known to actually exist and is more a placeholder explanation of the apparent expansion effects and ascribing some universal energy that can account for the expansion and the resistance to expansion gravity seems to exert. No energy is expended or moved to cause expansion as dark energy is constant and universal.