This space stuff boggles my mind. Don't you find it frustrating that all of these questions we will never have the answers to? The universe is just too big. When dealing with light years which to my understanding is some 10 trillion km, it's hard to comprehend just how small we really are.
2007-03-20 17:46:28 · 7 answers · asked by Trixstix 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Its expanding and it always will! I have the missing part of Einsteins equation! It was so simple to figure out too! I,m surprised no one has come up with it yet!
2007-03-20 18:13:08 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Can't claim to understand it myself but it's a little something like this. It would be more accurate to say that the Universe is generating MORE space in between the massive objects (galaxies0 that it contains). rather than to say that these objects are moving away from each other. Crazy, huh?
A common analogy I've seen a few times is to imagine the universe as a big raisin cake baking in the oven. Assuming that the raisins are fairly equally distributed in the dough, when the dough (that is, "space") expands, then the raisins (that is "galaxies") within it begin to move apart from each other. Imagine we are on one such raisin. We would see ALL the other raisins moving away from us, just like we were at the centre of some explosion. But of course the view would be the same from each raisin in the cake.
The difference between the cake and our universe is that there is no outer boundary to the universe. We can imagine that the universe is infinite, and constantly generating new space between its component galaxies.
Two interesting notes to end on:
1. It is now believed that the very early universe, in an era lasting only within the first split second of the universe's life, there was a tremendous inflationary boost to the expansion, and every part of the universe of the size of an atomic nucleus expanded to the size of a grapefruit. Then the expansion continued in the more stately fashion we know today.
2. One of the biggest quesions of cosmology has been, and still is, what will happen to universe eventually, will it just keep expanding until it is so thin that no individual galaxy will be able to see another, or will the expansion eventually stop and the universe begin contracting until a "big crunch" is reached. Recently, the evidence seems to tilt towards the former scenario. There is some evidence now from very fine Doppler Shift measurements that the Universe's expansion is speeding up.
Still, we are at the very early stages of the Universe's life. To use the analogy of a human life of say 100 years, the universe would be less than a millionth of second old. So there is plenty of time yet.
2007-03-20 18:40:41 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
According to Spephen Hawkings, the whole Universe is expanding. It is said that there are also the presence of other universes which are also expading in the same rate. Scientists have said that the expansion of the Univer is in the same ratio of every two universes. These space stuff boggles my mind too, but its almost imposssible ot give you the perfect reason for your question. Our universe is expanding to form a form of conectrated plasma matter which constitues about 90% of the universe itself. As time passes by all the celestial bodies are also espanding such as the sun, and other stars. Experimental studies revealed that its the gaseous matter that expandes the most.
It is indeed frustating for us to wait to search of these answers, but its also very interesting. The whole thing is in suspense and that's what addicts us most.
Think about it...
2007-03-20 18:13:03 · answer #3 · answered by Wind Boy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, I don't think anyone has an idea what it is expanding into, but we can tell it is expanding because most everything is moving away from us...
Imagine that you are inside a balloon and that you are stationery ( I know, the earth isn't stationery, just bare with me). Now, the balloon is being inflated...everything inside of that balloon is then moving away from you. This can be measured in the real universe...we can watch things, see things moving away from us as well as a few that are moving toward us, though there aren't many things moving toward us...that is how we know the universe is expanding.
Clear Skies!
2007-03-20 18:07:44 · answer #4 · answered by star2_watch 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It isn't expanding into anything. Space itself is just expanding (or stretching if you want to put it that way). If space were expanding into something, then you'd need another "space" for space to expand into, and then you'd end up with two types of space. Confusing eh? That's why it is a lot simpler to assume space is not expanding into anything whatsoever.
2007-03-20 17:54:32 · answer #5 · answered by Roman Soldier 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it's expanding into more space. dark matter is what makes up the rest of the universe.
as for how do we know it's expanding? "doppler effect" that's how they know, but not with sound. with lights. light changes color as it speeds toward you or away. it's the way light waves work. from red (moving away) to blue (moving closer)
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/ExpandUni.html
2007-03-20 17:52:07 · answer #6 · answered by Homer 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i dont know the answer for ur first question but you second one... we are still expanding because planets are moving away from each other (including the earth) the velocity in which they are moving increases as the distance increases from us ... for mroe details search on edward hubble and his findings ...
2007-03-20 17:55:37 · answer #7 · answered by G 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋