Big Expansion

The Big Expansion and Vast Universe

We know now that there are fewer atoms in the universe and we don't know
much about dark matter and dark energy but whether or not we can identify
everything in the universe - what it is not is nothingness. The universe
has something in it. It also contains a lot of dust and we're also
depositing a lot of space junk in space.

Time also has no absolute meaning except as a measure of change.
In space there is no time. Time is only relative to the observer. We age,
therefore we are aware of our time because it is relative to how we
change.

"Neither space nor time has any existence outside the system of evolving
relationships that comprises the universe..." (Three Roads to Quantum
Gramity, Lee Smolin)

The view which is widely accepted is the "standard model", also known as
the "big bang" theory. The universe began with an abrupt expansion of
matter (and antimatter) 13.7 billion years ago. There may be other
universes. This is called the multiverse theory and many universes may
exist as bubbles in space simultaneously.

"Recently, NASA has made some astounding discoveries which lend themselves
to the proof of the Big Bang theory. Most importantly, astronomers using
the Astro-2 observatory were able to confirm one of the requirements for
the foundation of the universe through the Big Bang. In June, 1995,
scientists were able to detect primordial helium, such as deuterium, in
the far reaches of the universe. These findings are consistent with an
important aspect of the Big Bang theory that a mixture of hydrogen and
helium was created at the beginning of the universe." (Chris LaRocco and
Blair Rothstein - http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm) )

"The origin of the Big Bang theory can be credited to Edwin Hubble. Hubble
made the observation that the universe is continuously expanding. He
discovered that a galaxys velocity is proportional to its distance.
Galaxies that are twice as far from us move twice as fast. Another
consequence is that the universe is expanding in every direction. This
observation means that it has taken every galaxy the same amount of time
to move from a common starting position to its current position. Just as
the Big Bang provided for the foundation of the universe, Hubbles
observations provided for the foundation of the Big Bang theory." (The Big
Bang, by Chris LaRocco and Blair Rothstein)

"At about one-hundredth of a second, the earliest time about which we can
speak with any confidence, the temperature of the universe was about a
hundred thousand million degrees Centigrade." (The First Three Minutes,
Steven Weinberg - 1977)

"Fortunately for us, there was an asymmetry in favor of matter. As a
direct result of an excess of about one part per billion, the universe was
able to mature in a way favorable for matter to persist. As the universe
first began to expand, this discrepancy grew larger. The particles which
began to dominate were those of matter. They were created and they decayed
without the accompaniment of an equal creation or decay of an
antiparticle." (Chris LaRocco and Blair Rothstein)

We don't know what caused the Big Bang, but we do know we exist today;
that all matter exists today because of an imbalance in matter to
antimatter at the time of creation.

Our sun is only one of about 200 billion suns in our galaxy, the Milky Way
- which is only one galaxy in hundreds of billions of galaxies. (See also:
* How many galaxies in the Universe?  -
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/astronomy/faq/part8/section-4.html)

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) site estimates there are hundreds of
billions of galaxies in the universe.

Fraser Cain, who along with Pamella Gay, produce my favorite astronomy
podcast ((http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/earth/). Fraser
wrote the following about the number of galaxies in the universe:

"Our Earth feels like all there is, but we know that it's just a tiny
planet in a vast Solar System. And our Solar System is just one member of
a vast Milky Way galaxy with 200 to 400 million stars. But how many
galaxies are there in the entire Universe?...A recent German supercomputer
simulation put that number even higher: 500 billion. In other words, there
could be a galaxy out there for every star in the Milky Way." (Cain)

"We live in a giant spiral galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, of 100,000
light years diameter and a mass of roughly a trillion solar masses;
our Sun is one of several 100 billions of stars of the Milky Way. The
nearest dwarf galaxies, satellites of the Milky Way, are only a few
100,000 light years distant (and closer in case of some dwarfs which
are currently merged with the Milky Way), while the nearest giant
neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), also a spiral, is about 2-3
million light years distant."
(URL: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/MESSIER/irre.html)

Hank Roth