universe expanding???

Question

If the universe is expanding, why are our constellations consistent??

Answer 1

There are several points here.

First, all the stars you see in the sky are part of our galaxy. The galaxies themselves are not expanding, the space inbetween them is. Think of our stars like blueberries in a pancake - they stay where they are even as you move the pancakes further and further apart.

Next, the stars actually ARE moving - the contellations we see aren't fixed, the stars are usually no where near each other, and they all have some degree of random motion of their own. So 10 million years from now, the sky may look very different. But that's not due to the expanding universe - that's just gravity.

Most people answering above seem to get the basics but mixed them up. Random star movements are not due to the expanding universe. We see galaxies moving away, not stars in our galaxy.

Answer 2

Constellations are not consistant, most were formed during the first half of the Universes current age.
Why: Dark Energy is a mysterious force that shapes our universe and helps it expand. Dark Energy has slowly come to dominate matter causing the Universe to expand at an accelerating rate. Now Dark Energy is pulling galaxies apart to fast for them to interact and as they used to. Because of this gas clouds, which usually form when galaxies interact, waned preventing star formation. Dark Holes also suck in hot gas from the newly formed stars and spit out jets of fire, preventing the gas from cooling and forming stars. It is very complicated but also very interesting, astronomers say that when Dark Energy becomes a very dominate force in universe it could tear apart galaxies and even our solar system.

Answer 3

The speed at which the universe is believed to be expanding has little effect on the position of the constellations because they are all inside our Milky Way galaxy.

Pure and simple.

I can't believe everybody missed that point.

Answer 4

The universe is not expanding out from a centre into space; rather, the whole universe is expanding and it is doing so equally at all places, as far as we can tell.

Answer 5

nobody knows for sure that the universe is expanding although it is the best theory. The universe is expanding like a baloon only it won't pop. It grows bigger and bigger yet everything remains consistent. or another theory is everything is expanding only it stays in the same ratio.

Answer 6

The stars we see are only a small portion of the stars in our galaxy. We see no stars from outside worlds. In this phase of the big rip, diffusion is only allowing the galaxies to spread apart, so the gravity source which is holding us together won't allow the constellations to move with NOTICEABLE difference.

Answer 7

It is not only expanding but expanding faster. But not so fast as one would notice even over the couse of your life. Check this last weeks science news reports as this has been a recent subject

Answer 8

theyre not. the universe is expanding but its huge. the constellations r moving. but we are moving too. also constellations do change. it just takes thousands of years.

Answer 9

Red shift is caused by the energy dissipation in the traveling photon that is emitted or reflected from the surface of the observed cosmic objects. The speculation of space expanding is coming from the observation result of red shift --- the observed object may be leaving the observer fast. And from this speculation come another speculation --- what pushed the observed objects leaving us so fast and nearly all objects observed are leaving us away. To balance the universe a speculation comes out to balance the equation --- dark energy. It is a manmade balance with a manmade concept --- dark energy. It is a cascade of mistakes formed a wrong path dependency that caused our scientific society and our whole world many decades of time and efforts. Space-time or call it space and time is non-matter existence which do not have mass and cannot be affected by matter existence. So it cannot be changed in whatever way. They are absolute non-matter existences which can be used as absolute reference frames for matter existences.

The fundamental force that dominates all movement in the universe is the mass – energy transformation movement from which all other movements derive. In any local space and time, matter getting denser or thinner is also caused by this fundamental movement but the universe as a whole entity will have no reason to expand or contract and there is no force can do that. Observable universe is not the whole universe. The finiteness of the observability is caused by the finiteness of the existence of fundamental particle --- photon which obey the law of entropy growing and will becoming weaker and weaker (lower amplitude and longer wave length) and finally disappear --- becoming something else. And more decisive point is that the explanation for the result of the observation is wrong: red shift is not caused by the observed objects leaving us, and that in turn is not caused by space-time dilation, it is caused by normal energy dissipation in the photons. The whole universe will always be startles, endless, boundless, generally its matter quite evenly distributed --- just as the observation results that scientists told us.

Answer 10

We dont know if the universe is expanding or not. If it is then its just growing its not stretching. If it were to stretch then that would mean big problems for everybody . Since its not stretching, everything that is already inside the universe stays in its own spot :)