The Univers

[kermit911]

The univers is constantly expanding, but once it stops will it just pop like a ballon or deflate in other words? WIll we be able to see the universe collapsing? How long in advance "with todays technoligy" do you think we would see are end coming, if at all?

Theories and Opinions welcomed

Thanx
Dave

[Loosehead]

Well the steady state theory is pretty much debunked, so it's really about whether the universe goes on expanding and essentially slowly decays to nothing or whether there is enough matter/dark matter to arrest the expansion and pull everything back together under gravity into a "big crunch" the reverse of a big bang. There is a theory that we are simply in one of many big bang/crunch cycles. The Universe will not "pop" though! I thing cosmologists at the moment are undecided between these 2 possibilities, I think that's because the 2 scenarios come up pretty close to each other in the calculations, ie it is unclear whether there is enough matter to halt the expansion.The "Dark Matter" is also a bit of a thorn in the side for these calculations too.

[jake-the-peg]

Yup it'll go pop and then thwwwwwwwp all over the place like a burst balloon in a Bugs Bunny cartoon!

Seriously though the Universe's expansion has faily recently been shown to be accelerating and we don't know why.

There's a suggested "dark energy" which is possibly a fifth force causing this but until we understand the accelerated expansion there's no way to answer the question of whether the universe will continue to expand or start to collapse.

I'm pretty sure it won't go pop though ;c)

[mibn2cweus]

For all we know there may be another universe out there in the shape of a pin heading on a collision course with our own!

Not to worry, that is extremely unlikely, at least, I wouldn't count on it. But then again, maybe it has already happened! Ever hear of the "BIG BANG"?