http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/bigrip.htm

Baisicaly After the big bang the universe started to accelerate outwards at intense speeds, but some scientists think that not only is the universe still expanding but its expansion is actualy getting faster!. They belive that some mysterious energy (phantom force) is pulling the universe outwards and will eventualy start to literaly tear the universe apart!

Has anyone else heard of this and if so what are your thoughts

I call that theory the Big Fart!

It really stinks!

thats interesting i gotta check up on it

if it is the case that the universe is still expanding it can very well just mean that the big bang is still exploding, the universe is also a vacum, the universe itself can be causing this acceleration wich can explain the phantom force, the whole universe tearing apart idea, i do not know enough on the subject to say anything

I don't even buy the BB theory anymore. Show me the epicenter and I might reconsider. Where is the epicenter?

well i mean we cant even see out of our own galaxy, so showing you the epicenter might be a little hard

Is this some kind of joke?
Everyone knows about the acceleration of the universe caused by dark energy. Is there a point to this obvious observation?

There is no epicenter. The Big Bang(BB) is not like a regular explosion where matter scatters in all directions. The BB is an explosion of space, and not an explosion in space. Prior to the BB, there was no space and no time, and the BB caused not just matter to explode outward in all directions, but space itself.

The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is uniform in all directions, which confirms that it's not matter accelerating in all directions from a single point, but space itself.

So you could look at it like there is no epicenter, or you could look at it like everywhere is the epicenter.

Like my butt, for instance!

I will be candid and say that most of the knowledge you have on the subject is so far above my level of understanding that it isn't even funny.

That being said, I now feel comfortable enough to ask what is probably an easy question for you: How does Space explode? I always thought that it was matter exploding in space. And so have always been with the idea that matter had to be present to 'explode'. It sounds like what you are saying is that not only was there no Space and no Time, but that there wasn't any Matter either. How did Space explode?

There was no space or time prior to the BB, but there was matter. All the matter and energy of the universe was condensed into a singularity. Nobody knows the reasons why or how, but the singularity exploded. When the singularity exploded(BB), it expanded outward in all directions uniformly, creating space and time.

heat, matter rubbing together causing heat. just a guess.

time is a man-made thing

If there was matter and energy....where was it? If it wasn't in space, where was it? I am not arguing...I am asking.

It was the singularity




Instruments used to measure time are man-made, but not time itself

Okay, so...I did some quick research...seems that the Singularity is theorized to have been some sort of BlackHole. Nobody really knows how.

So now I am thinking....there was a Singularity...a blackhole of sorts...so, did all of that matter and energy actually 'explode' or was it perhaps spit out the other side of the singularity with cosmic force...and do we know for sure that it is expanding in all directions? Is it possible that maybe it is expanding in somewhat of a mushroom cloud effect and eventually rolls back around into the singularity from whence it came only to be spit out again and again over and over and over? Or should I just go to bed?

how long ago wah the big bang?

no way to tell how long ago the big bang was but it is estimated to be around 15 billion years old

also a mushroom cloud is formed when the very hot (less dense) air of the explosion rises faster than the surrounding cooler air, since there was no air before the big bang it would be impossible to form a mushroom cloud

and one last thing that perhaps homer can answer for me, if all mass was at this singularity, when the big bang banged did this mass grow? when/if a big cruch ever happes will the mass in the universe shrink or will it all get bunched up on the edge of the universe untill it gets compressed into the singularity again?

When the universe was a singularity, all the mass was so dense and so hot it was like a plasma. This plasma(matter) expanded with the universe after the BB. Eventually the universe cooled enough for electrons to combine with nuclei to make atoms, which formed stars and galaxies. So it's not that the matter grew, but that it expanded with the universe.

In the Big Crunch scenario, matter would condense back into a singularity

meaning everything would shrink?

Yes everything would shrink.
The big crunch theory assumes the density of matter exceeds critical density, so the gravitational pull will eventually not only halt the expansion, but reverse the expansion, making all matter collapse into a singularity. This is also known as a closed universe.

The big chill theory, also known as an open universe, will expand forever because the density of mass is below critical density, therefore the gravitational pull is insufficient to reverse the expansion.

I am confused again.... I thought matter was atomic structures....if not then what was matter?

or did the BB destroy all the matter and then it came back together again.......

Matter is anything that occupies space, and can be solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.
The singularity is too dense(and therefore too hot) to be solid atomic structures.

During the earliest stages of the universe, matter consisted of gases and plasma, and only after the expanding universe cooled some, did atoms form into solid structures.

I wonder if scientists will ever agree which one (if any) of these ideas is correct.

Im no good with Astrophysics but im sure that plasma cannot exist within a singularity. Plasma exist a quantum second after the big bang, of course time also started with the expansion of space. Within the heart of every blackhole is a SIngularity, simplicity, a singularity defines a blackhole. A singularity occupies no space, it is a "single" point. COsmic background radiation is the radiation produced a quantum second after the bigbang, imagine the radiation that was produced then are still bouncing around. By measuring it's red shift, we can measure the rate where it is expanding, the curvature of space etc. Btw curvature of space will give you the quantities of energy and mass in the universe. Dark matter is unaccounted for mass and dark energy is unaccounted for energy.

I’m sure they will figure it out eventually. The problem is critical density. Scientists don’t know if the universe is dense enough to achieve critical density.
If we measure all the normal(baryonic) matter, and this includes baryonic dark matter(such as MACHO’s), there is still not enough matter to achieve critical density. If the density of the universe is at or exceeds critical density, then most of the matter would have to come from exotic matter. Neutrinos, for example, would be exotic matter if it’s determined they have rest mass. WIMP’s are also a good candidate for exotic matter.
Once exotic matter is better understood, then we might come to the conclusion on whether the universe is open or closed

We can break all of this down into its simplest forms.

What do we know? We know that the Big Bang was born out of a singularity. What do we know about singularities? Only that all laws of physics as we know them break completely down.

This is one example of scientists knowing where to find the answers for everything, but not knowing how to get there to obtain the answers.

The answers all lie in the heart of a singularity.

matter is mostly empty space -even a solid cube of metal - gold for instance - is 99.999% void. An atom is mostly empty space. Looks can be deceiving! Neutronic material as found in neutron stars is a billion times denser than normal matter. On an N-star gravitational forces have overcome electrostatic repulsive forces resulting in compromised electron shells and nucleus to nucleus contact. This is the stuff of real matter - what we see and experience is a fluffed up expanded version.

Cosmology Primer

On the Nature of Time

Neutron Stars and Pulsars

Thoughts on singularity - this singularity did not contain all the matter in the known universe in a similar fashion to how a coconut does not contain all the matter of a mighty palm tree. Matter was fenerated as a consequence of cosmological considerations related to symettrey breaking and phase transitions within the early universe. Ultra-dense and ultra hot seed or singularitty is a bit of a misnomer. IMHO. One last point - the universe cannot be torn apart by dark energy - it already is "torn apart" in the sense that we are no longer an embryonic singularity. Nature throws us curve balls at every turn. In the realm of quantum cosmology one must think very much "outside the box." Standard notions of matter, time, heat and gravity are misleading and not "on the right track." It would not be unreasonable to suggest that layman not waste their precious time in plumbing these murky depths. To merely formulate reasonable questions in this field requires a solid background in abstract mathematics.