Besides indicating that the universe is expanding much faster than in the past, the chance discovery of the most distant supernova has revived a discarded theory of Albert Einstein suggesting the pervasive existence of mysterious dark energy.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope found the exploding star about 10 billion light-years from Earth.
The discovery bolsters the startling notion that the universe has recently begun speeding up its expansion, which scientists first speculated three years ago based on the unusually dim light from other distant supernovas.
If expansion is accelerating (not accelerating over space, but space-time accelerating - kind of weird to explain), then it is most likely that the universe will forever expand until all matter disperses into nothingness...
What I am talking about for those of you who didn't study astronomy is that the universe is a gravity system of it's own...gravity density, if you will. So, if the force of which the big bang started everything is greater than the gravity density of the universe, it will forever expand. If the force is less than the gravity density, the universe will recollapse...a big crunch, if you will. If the two are equal, expansion will gradually slow down and approach zero, over infinity.
Based on this info, it appears the Universe will expand forever. So there you have it, kiddies....there is only finite time for life to exist...even if it is a REALLY LONG finite time.
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Does driving a car from Saturn make me an alien?
That which does not make me barf, makes me stronger - possum37, fugly.net guru.
it's actually not that hard to understand.. just think of a graph with a diaganol line with a positive slope.. (the real graph is much more logrithmic but who cares).. anyways.. if you're above the line.. the rate at which the universe expands increases continuously.. if you're on the line it's like what JH said.. the rate of expansion goes to 0.. and if you're under the diaganol.. the rate goes to 0 then to the negative #'s.. which would be the universe contracting...
How come no one understands me when I discuss postmodern thought, but when we discuss the mysteries of the universe, it's all so easy for everyone to pick up?
To everybody who's heads are exploding right now, don't worry about it. The thing about theories like this is that they're always changing and being proven wrong. I highly recommend that everybody read Steven Hawking's "A Brief History of Time," which basically explains that first we thought we understood the universe...then realized we were wrong, so we came up with new theories and thought we understood the universe...then we realized we were wrong, so we came up with new theories and thought we understood the universe...
