evidence that the universe will expand forever

[Zydeco]

Explanation: This tiny ball provides evidence that the universe will expand forever. Measuring slightly over one tenth of a millimeter, the ball moves toward a smooth plate in response to energy fluctuations in the vacuum of empty space. The attraction is known as the Casimir Effect, named for its discoverer, who, 50 years ago, was trying to understand why fluids like mayonnaise move so slowly. Today, evidence is accumulating that most of the energy density in the universe is in an unknown form dubbed dark energy. The form and genesis of dark energy is almost completely unknown, but postulated as related to vacuum fluctuations similar to the Casimir Effect but generated somehow by space itself. This vast and mysterious dark energy appears to gravitationally repel all matter and hence will likely cause the universe to expand forever. Understanding vacuum fluctuations is on the forefront of research not only to better understand our universe but also for stopping micro-mechanical machine parts from sticking together.

Explanation: Imagine a pipe as wide as a state and as long as half the Earth. Now imagine that this pipe is filled with hot gas moving 50,000 kilometers per hour. Further imagine that this pipe is not made of metal but a transparent magnetic field. You are envisioning just one of thousands of young spicules on the active Sun. Pictured above is perhaps the highest resolution image yet of these enigmatic solar flux tubes. Spicules dot the above frame of solar active region 10380 that crossed the Sun in June, but are particularly evident as a carpet of dark tubes on the right. Time-sequenced images have recently shown that spicules last about five minutes, starting out as tall tubes of rapidly rising gas but eventually fading as the gas peaks and falls back down to the Sun. These images also indicate, for the first time, that the ultimate cause of spicules is sound-like waves that flow over the Sun's surface but leak into the Sun's atmosphere.

[Jesda]

*heads back over to the hottest women thread*

[rydwhite]

You read that Steve Hawking has changed his theory on black holes and the posibility of time travel? Very interesting stuff.

[crzycav86]

Yeah, go read "A brief history of time" by steven hawking.

And he already proved that the universe is expanding.

Cool stuff..

You read that Steve Hawking has changed his theory on black holes and the posibility of time travel? Very interesting stuff.

When did he change his theory?

[rydwhite]

Last week. I read an article in the paper about it. It didn't really go into detail about why though.

[szh]

"Alpha & Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe" by Charles Seife.

I just finished reading this book and I would highly recommend reading it if you are interested in the topic.

It is way more up to date than Hawking's "A Brief History Of Time" and includes the latest theories (as of a year or two ago, as I recall) of the origins of the universe based on all the super-collider activity. I could not put the book down till I had finished it! :ylsuper

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi...books

Z

[silkk]

very cool stuff

[szh]

I forgot to mention: the book goes into details (at a layman's level) about the concept of dark matter and what contributes to it. Good stuff!

Z

[Kiwi_S13]

Yeah, go read "A brief history of time" by steven hawking.

And he already proved that the universe is expanding.

Cool stuff..

Whoops, you made a quintessential error here. He PROVED? One man's word does not equal truth. IE - Techincally, not mathematically, just like the earth can not be PROVEN that it is round..

[Mr1der]

head.....hurts.....must get....beer and......blow....somethind....up.

[NIGHTfall_240sx]

..the real question is... whats beyond the end of the universe.. if it is forever expanding... whats it expanding into?? Obviously the universe's size is not infiniti because there would be no expanding if it was.... so if we were to freeze time as it is right now... and the universe stops expanding.... and we were to get to the edge of the universe (yeah i know it will never happen, im just thinking *what if*) .... what are we gunna run into? a solid wall?? if so whats beyond that wall??? AHHHH IM GOING CRAZY... MUST STOP THINKING...

[[Zero-S]]

Gentlemen, get your drills. We're going through that wall!

Chaos.

[gabossie]

I hate this topic, because it's one you can never come to any REAL conclusions about because you can't prove anything. Boggles the mind though.

[rydwhite]

..the real question is... whats beyond the end of the universe.. if it is forever expanding... whats it expanding into?? Obviously the universe's size is not infiniti because there would be no expanding if it was.... so if we were to freeze time as it is right now... and the universe stops expanding.... and we were to get to the edge of the universe (yeah i know it will never happen, im just thinking *what if*) .... what are we gunna run into? a solid wall?? if so whats beyond that wall??? AHHHH IM GOING CRAZY... MUST STOP THINKING...

Oh the countless hours I have wasted debating this very issue with my brother. The conlusion I have come to is that it is incomprehensible. There is nothing there beyond the unvierse. The thought of nothing is impossible. There has to be something even if it is just dark blackness that is something, but nope, that doesn't exist because there is nothing there. If the universe is expanding it has to be expanding into something, but what? Nothing. It gives me headaches to try and contemplate nothing.

[Mr1der]

Gentlemen, get your drills. We're going through that wall!

Chaos.

I'd like to be the first to jump through the hole.

Gotta get my name in a history book somehow...without doodling boobies next to it...

[NY94J30]

Whoops, you made a quintessential error here. He PROVED? One man's word does not equal truth. IE - Techincally, not mathematically, just like the earth can not be PROVEN that it is round..

You're right, it cannot be proven that the earth is round - b/c the earth is not round, its a spheroid. Though the dimensions of the earth certainly can be proven. Theories are not by definition proven, though they may be at some point given some piece of missing data.

[Mr1der]

ahem.



forgot I made that just for such an occasion:D

[[Zero-S]]

<3

1der you are a sexy beast.

[BomexS13]

They dont even know where the end of the universe is and now theyre telling us that its expanding....

why is it expanding when the universe is infinite...no end

[rydwhite]

They dont even know where the end of the universe is and now theyre telling us that its expanding....

why is it expanding when the universe is infinite...no end

Exactly, it is incomrehensible, the universe is infinite because there is no end because it is ever expanding therefore you can never reach the end of it, yet if it is expanding there would have to be an end somewhere, but there isn't, there is nothing beyond the universe. Make any sense? I don't get it, too much philosophical thinking involved. My mind has a hard time grasping these concepts of nothing and infinite.

[nab911]

What exactly is expanding? All the galaxies and such are moving outwards but the actualy space that there just extends forever. Eventualy it will get so far out that everything will freeze over because it will be so far apart. I once heard its slowing down and that it will all come back together and collide into one form. Sorda like the big bang all over again. I think at the point 1der will get a girlfriend

[szh]

I once heard its slowing down and that it will all come back together and collide into one form.

That depends on how much dark matter there is in the universe and inside quantum vacuums!

This is one of the areas of current research and measurement. You gotta keep up with it ... go through the book I mentioned. It is not a tough read.

Z

[szh]

I think at the point 1der will get a girlfriend

Was there a reference to "when hell freezes over" somewhere in these posts?!? Just kidding!

Z

[burnin240sx]

your all wrong the universe has hit the wall andis now back to the srinking mode were all going to die in about 32354 billion years

[driftaholic]

there is no universe

[spitz7985]

I read that not only is the universe expanding, but it is doing so at an ever increasing rate. So one day, when the universe is expanding at, or faster then the speed of light (although some thing there is no possibility of anything going faster then the speed of light), the night sky will be completely dark, other then the moon. No stars or anything. Although, by that time, there will be no earth so it doesn't matter.

I'm not so sure about this whole dark engery/dark matter bit. Seems like they can't figure out why the universe is expanding against gravity, so they just make up some force and call it dark engergy. And they can't figure out why there is less matter in the universe then they calculated so they make up some matter and called it dark matter. IDK, maybe there is more evidence for it then what I've read. But maybe it is just like that and we do not have the knowlede of the physics of the universe to even comprehend it. Like the strong and weak nuclear forces. Why is aren't the protons in a nucleas violently repeled from one another? Must be a force there, we'll name it. Why does gravity attract objects to each other? Do we know?

Same thing goes with their search for life on other planets. The first thing they look for is water, becaue there need to be water for life to exist. Umm, what? Is there any chance that there could be some other kind of life out there that doesn't require water?

IDK, maybe I'm too ignorant of the latest research to understand. But from what it seems, scientists are stuck in a major paradigm.

[BomexS13]

can we just figure out how to migrate to mars instead of figuring out where the end of the universe is...?:pface

[Mr1der]

just shut up and take the red pill.

[skydragoness]

Stuff like this always piques my interest

I've just found my book to read on the airplane this weekend.

[Rockenreno]

Stuff like this always piques my interest

I don't know how many of you are at all interested in string theory, but it's pretty cool. I read (most of) a book called "The Elegant Universe" about string theory and PBS recently had a special on it. You can find info on it at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

They have the whole 3 hour show/summary of the book available to watch online. Probably pretty interesting since the book was pretty cool...