Are the galaxies speeding away from each other or is it possible that curved space will cause a big crunch?

Question

If you were to view the universe as a large sphere and were to travel on the inside , it would seem that the there was an infinite amount of space as you traveled along but at some point you would arrive at where you started , though it seemed the path was a straight line. Could it be that what astronomers are seeing ...the galaxies moving ever faster away from each other , is that the whole of the universe is racing back to a starting point and that there is nothing pushing the celestial bodies, only gravity is pulling everything back to a singularity?

Answer 1

Speculation, my good man.

I file this piece of theoretical speculation with previous theories; such as us having the only universe, or a flat planet we could sail off of, and men cleaning the toilet without prompting (sorry!).

We thought the molecule was the smallest, then the atom, now a quark (sp)...take it as a hypothesis, and carry on until we know more.

What theories do you have? You can create one too. You are as(or can be) as knowledgeable as Einstein or Darwin...rock on!

Answer 2

You're misunderstanding the problem. The analogy of the sphere works because you reduce the number of dimensions in the "universe". A person "in" the universe that is the surface of the sphere is a two-dimensional being.

The expansion takes place at -all- points, driving everything in the two-dimensional surface away from everything else. Imagine drawing tiny dots on the surface of a balloon and then blowing it up. The points will all rush away from each other.

In our universe, the same thing is occuring, but it is important to note that there is no center of expansion. The point -within- the balloon in the above analogy is not -wthin- the two-dimensional universe and has no meaning.

So there isn't any "starting point".

Furthermore, careful studies have shown that the gravitational force embodied by all the matter and energy in our universe (of which all the observable matter and energy makes up only a paltry 5%) is insufficient to halt the expansion, and that several billion years ago, the universe began to expand at an accelerating rate, due to vacuum energy.

Answer 3

Nothing on this subject can be factual rather theory so I would say that the universe is like a big ballon expanding larger and larger with the galaxies moving farther and farther away to the outer limits of space which nobody has every observed actually what the outer perimeter consists of. If the outer perimeter is curved then yes it might be able to take you someplace else within the universe or just crush you to death but if its still exploding on the outer perimeters then you will have fire and flames and mega explosions as it grows. The question I'd like to know is what lies on the other side of the outer perimeters?

Answer 4

If someone made all of area, and likewise endowed the universe with the organic guidelines it has continuously had, then properly...i assume that entity ought to have the skill to make a donkey communicate. yet i do not see any data to help the theory that area replaced into created by a options. Minds are created by the universe, no longer any opposite direction round. A options is an entity that arises even as an animal has a worried device and a mind. it is not any longer something that magically exists outdoors of spacetime. And besides, enable me get this immediately. Are you affirming you've faith in talking donkeys? HAHA. enable me allow you to recognize something. If a guy created the total universe, do you imagine he can make a Mewtwo besides? ok then. Mewtwo exists someplace contained in the universe. prepare me incorrect. See how ridiculous your line of reasoning is? by your common sense, something is conceivable in case you purely say that an all-effective being did it.

Answer 5

No, refer to my previous answer on this same topic. The concept of the 'Big Crunch' has been discredited. It has been learned that the expansion of the universe is apparently speeding up. The energy that is doing this cannot yet be detected, so it is called, whimsically, 'Dark energy'.

And yet the expansion is not going as fast as the theoretical calculations show it ought to, so there must be a lot more mass in the universe than we knew, whose gravity is keeping things from flying apart quite as fast as they would otherwise. Because scientists cannot see this extra mass, they have taken to calling it 'Dark matter'.

Search on dark energy and dark matter, and you will learn a lot about the most intriguing puzzle of modern astrophysics!

Answer 6

They are speeding away from each other now, but this may not continue indefinitely, and astronomers are busy crunching data to try to figure out whether the universe is open (expands forever) or closed (will eventually collapse with a big crunch). At the moment, we don't know.

Answer 7

i think that would be possible, not in the idea of the sphere, but an extra dimention that all the others exist in, that may loop like that, couldn't it be possible that we could just never fully grasp that a dimention could contain others? therefore createing the appearance of expantion. or even function like that, you can only get so far before you travel back even though to you it seems you've been traveling in a straight line. the balloon story seems to suggest we could be the ants and never really know theres more to the world then the flat surface.

Answer 8

galaxies are not actually speeding away from each other. Space is expanding, and galaxies are moving with space. Like a loaf of raisen bread dough raising with space being the dough and raisins being the galaxies. The raisins are moving away from each other, but its because the dough is expanding.

Answer 9

I've read some places that in a few million years our galaxy (Milky Way) will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. It's just a theory, though.

Answer 10

everything will return to one point and that point will be the biggest black hole out there, dark matter, but for right now the universe is still getting larger.