Accelerating expansion of the cosmos
The Accelerating Expansion of the Cosmos
In cosmology, the notion of an Accelerating Expanding Universe is the idea that the universe is expanding in space at an accelerating velocity. It was first proposed in the late 1920s.
Theories regarding the accelerating expansion of the universe
In 1929, American astronomer Edwin Hubble studied the relative velocities of faraway galaxies and compared this information with estimates of the galaxies' distance from Earth. He found that more distant galaxies appeared to be moving away from the Earth at a faster rate than closer galaxies. This became known as Hubble's Law. The Cosmos, or the known universe, was deduced to be accelerating apart from observations of type Ia supernovae in the late 1990's. This was a surprise observation as there was a general expectation that gravity should be slowing down the expansion and possibly eventually reverse it. Subsequently the term Dark Energy was coined for the mysterious cause of the accelerating expansion. There was however a theory recorded by the artist, Mark Bridger, in a painting titled "The Eternal and Infinite Universe" and exhibited in a public art gallery in Reading, UK in January 1995, that predictively explained why the Cosmos should be accelerating apart, on the basis that if the universe is infinite and eternal, and the Cosmos / Big Bang is thus surrounded by infinite other cosmoses or bangs, then the Cosmos should expand in an acceleration by gravitationally pulling on the mass that surrounds it*. According to this theory then, the term 'dark energy' may misrepresent what is an effect of Gravity, given a universe that is infinite in space and time.
The rate of acceleration is then proportional to the collective mass of the Cosmos - so subdivisions or parts of the collective mass accelerate apart at proportionately smaller rates, thus clumping the mass into local gravity patterns while the space between the parts expands.
For the gravity of a collective mass, like the solar system, to give it both a tendency to expand while at the same time conform to an attraction between it's parts, then it has to be resolved into a set or orbital patterns - the pulling apart effect thus helping gravity to form stable patterns.
References
- "BBC - Universe - Hubble's Law". http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/universe/questions_and_ideas/hubbles_law. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerating_expansion_of_the_cosmos
