Surely, you have questions about the phenomenon of expansion. How do scientists know that it exists? And where is the universe expanding? How fast is the expansion? And what’s outside? Ask these questions to any astronomer and get a weird answer. In the end, the universe does not expand into something, it just expands.
Let’s not forget that the Universe is everything! If there is something behind it, then this is also the Universe. In any direction – this is the universe. She has no edge, no limits or restrictions. When we think about the Big Bang, we fantasize as if there was a spike in matter that splashed in different directions from one point. But it is not so.
It is better to represent this on the example of a ball. But take a 2-dimensional surface. If you are an ant, and the balloon is your Universe, then you would walk on the surface inside and feel that it is flat. Step in any direction and return to the original.
You may be surprised that it is expanding, but you have no place to go to get out of its zone. You can find the center inside, but outside the surface there is none. It is simply a form (shell) that expands in all directions. True, your way inside the ball will take longer if it is pumped up.
To realize all the scales, let’s take our 2-dimensional surface, built into the 3-dimensional world, and place it in the 4-dimensional Universe. Scientists say that no matter how long you fly, you will still return to the start. And if you were looking as far as possible, you would just notice your back of the head. It turns out that when expanding, you will spend more time flying and returning to the original one. But there is not a single road that will allow to get out of its borders, because they do not exist! Even if you have exceeded the speed of light, then simply return home faster. We notice that other galaxies are being removed, just as an ant would have watched the anthills distance away.
Add another example. Let’s say you bake a raisin cake. In the oven, the dough rises, and you see the raisins moving away from each other. But within the cupcake itself, you can move in any direction, and still return to the starting highlight, because there is only dough and nothing more.
Do not forget that all of our ideas are based on 3 dimensions. If 4-dimensional view were available to us, it would be much easier to realize these concepts. So, the Universe is just expanding, and you can’t break out into another place.
Scientists have told, when we find out the exact rate of expansion of the universe
Measurements of gravitational waves from 50 double neutron stars over the next decade will finally resolve the heated debate about how rapidly the universe is expanding.
Cosmos has increased over 13.8 billion years, and its current rate of expansion, known as the Hubble constant, determines the time elapsed since the Big Bang. However, the two best methods (observation of supernovae and Cepheids, as well as the measurement of cosmic background radiation) used to determine this value do not agree with each other, suggesting that our understanding of the structure and history of the Universe, the so-called “standard cosmological model be wrong.
Hubble’s constant is one of the most important numbers in cosmology, because it is important for assessing the curvature of space and the age of the Universe, as well as for studying its fate.
-Professor Hiranya Peiris, co-author of a study from University College London (UK)
Binary neutron stars are rare, but priceless. They provide an alternative way to track the expansion of the universe.
Gravitational waves are born when members of the system rotate towards each other in such pairs of dead giants, and then collide in a bright flash of light that can be detected with telescopes, while space-time oscillations produced by the impact are detected by LIGO and Virgo interferometers that accurately measure the distance from the collision site to the Earth. By detecting the light from the accompanying explosion, astronomers can determine the speed of the system and, therefore, calculate the Hubble constant.
The researchers modeled how many such observations would be needed to solve the problem of accurately measuring the rate of expansion of the Universe. “We calculated that by observing 50 double neutron stars over the next decade, we will get enough data on gravitational waves to independently determine the Hubble constant,” said Dr. Stephen Feeney, lead author of the research from the Flatyron Institute of Computer Science (USA ).
This, in turn, will lead to the most accurate picture of the expansion of the Universe and will allow to improve the standard cosmological model.
Expansion of the universe
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