MadSci Network: Astronomy |
Thank you for your question Harsh - and an interesting idea. But the short answer is that there is no evidence that the expansion can stop nor that we can yet answer the question regarding the Big Bang - "what went bang". Dark Matter and Dark Energy are two different but each very important components of our universe. Together, they make up an estimated 95% of our universe. However our universe, so far as we know obeys a zero-sum rule. By conservation of energy, the sum of all the matter and energy (which is equivalent to matter through E=mc^2 through Einstein's Relativity) is fixed. All you could hope to do is change one form to another. But there is not enough matter in the universe to slow the expansion. In fact, the expansion seems to be accelerating. We currently have no credible mechanism to make the universe cyclical. Instead it looks like it had a beginning and will continue to expand. Right now, it appears that the universe has less than half the amount of matter/energy to slow the expansion and bring about a collapse. Attached are some useful links which explain Dark Energy and Dark Matter. But keep the ideas coming. Up until about 10 years ago, we thought we had a nice reasonably well understood explanation for the origin of our universe. Then observations turn some of those ideas on their heads and Dark Energy is the outcome. It really just represents a name for something that was not expected and is yet to really be understood. http://science.hq.nasa.gov/universe/science/dark_energy.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/exhibit/map_weighing.html http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/lectures/lec30.htm
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