The Big Bang and Hubble Telescope observations
By FireHorse
@FireHorse (293)
United States
May 2, 2007 4:48am CST
I read about an experiment using the hubble to determine the rate at which the universe's expansion is slowing. After carefully reviewing their data, it was determined the universe is NOT slowing, it is instead increasing the rate of expansion, meaning the big bang is still banging. This would tend to suggest an open universe which would ultimately result in dark empty space. Opinions are welcome, do you feel the universe is open (resulting in a growing dark empty space), closed (resulting in a "big crunch", possibly a never ending cycle), or flat (similiar result to open)?
2 responses
@Sandy100 (141)
•
24 May 07
I personally belive that its a closed and oscillating universie. The big bang was caused by an exteremly large (but finite) energy, as such after a time the gravatianal forces of the stars / planets will become the greater force forcing objects closer together, causing a big crunch and then i belive another big bang. The fact that the expansion seems to be accelerating may just indicate that the expansion is still in its early stage (expanding very quickly) before slowing down and contracting.
@FireHorse (293)
• United States
27 May 07
I agree with the idea we may still be in the early stage of expansion. What seems to be 13.9 billion years from our perspective within this universe may not be so from a different point of view oustide this universe (if there is anything outside). I'm reserving judgement on the end of the universe until all the data is in but I do appreciate comments and ideas :)
@mattithyahu (389)
• United States
8 May 07
It isn't really that "the big bang is still banging" because the big bang was a singular event at the beginning. An open universe is such a strange and unexpected thing to see because there has to be some energy that causes things to continually speed up expansion. It SEEMS that all the gravity would be slowing the expansion down, but the opposite is seen. Not only is the universe NOT slowing down, it is speeding up. This is quite mind-boggling a is extremely interesting to astrophysicists. Dark matter or dark energy are possible explanations, but it is still largely a mystery as to why this is happening.
