Accelerating Universe Expansion

[Swami Dring]

The fact that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate has been confounding my brane for many years. It would seem that the gravitational attraction between galaxies would cause the universe to expand at a decreasing speed.

However, I have an hypothesis, by god. (btw- should that be "an" or "a" hypothesis?) It is based on the observation that nothing in the observable universe seems to occur in isolation. If you see one ant, you will find that there are billions. If you see one star, you will find billions. One galaxy, billions.

It seems logical therefore to infer that whatever natural phenomenon led to the big bang occurring would not have been an isolated incident. It has probably occurred billions of times. If this is the case, then our observable universe would be surrounded in all directions by other universes, whose remoteness renders them unobservable.

This would explain the increasing rate of expansion of our universe, as the matter contained within it would be attracted to the greater gravitational field of the many surrounding universes.

Am I on to something here or does my hypothesis suck balls? Anyone?

[annielaurie]

Actually your idea doesn't suck balls at all. I have considered the possibility of multiverses, and so have cosmologists.

Some say our own universe is actually a three-dimensional membrane of energy with a small amount of daryonic matter (ordinary matter as in galaxies and stars) "stretching" out very close to another membrane, and that there are many of these membranes contained in a larger fifth dimensional space.

This is Brane Theory, associated with Superstring Theory. They are working on it, anyway. Of course it cannot be observed directly because of the remoteness of all the other surrounding universes, as you mentioned.

But their gravitational fields could very well be tugging on our own universe, indeed.

[Mattus]

How could the gravitational fields of other universes be overwhelming he gravitational field of our own universe, given the inverse square law?

[Super Nova]

How could the gravitational fields of other universes be overwhelming he gravitational field of our own universe, given the inverse square law?

Maybe the membrane is not a perfect insulator between universes. Gravity, a force we don't understand yet may act across membranes.

I was thinking the following. Try this for a stupid idea.

As space expands, imagine that more space is being created instead of each space unit being expanded. Space xpanded by extra units of space being created. As light travels from distant sources a wave length of the light is being stretched as space is expanded. A wave of light spans many units of space (they are small) so when they are stretched (more sapce is added between the start and end of the wave) the wave is stretched.

A wave in this region of space today would occupy less units of space as compared to the waves generated long ago when space was smaller, when they arrive here. At source the wave lengths are the same in two different parts of the universe (if you could compare them) however they change overtime because space itself is growing. No just that the source of the light is moving away at speed.

Would that account for some of red shift. If so... the universe may not be expanding as fast as we think.

[mantra]

Your science teacher would have loved you SN.

[boxy]

The main problem with your theory, that I can see, is that gravity only propagates at the speed of light, and so anything outside our observable universe doesn't have a gravitational effect on us. "Outside" universes, therefore wouldn't be pulling this one apart now...

... usual disclaimers, etc... I am just a farm boy, after all

[freediver]

There is another force, like the opposite of gravity, that decays with a different power of distance - much like the subatomic forces that push atoms together and pull them apart depending on the diameter of the nucleus.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Anyone familiar with Dyson Freeman's musing that it seems as if the Universe anticipated life?

[Super Nova]

How could the gravitational fields of other universes be overwhelming he gravitational field of our own universe, given the inverse square law?

Maybe the membrane is not a perfect insulator between universes. Gravity, a force we don't understand yet may act across membranes.

I was thinking the following. Try this for a stupid idea.

As space expands, imagine that more space is being created instead of each space unit being expanded. Space xpanded by extra units of space being created. As light travels from distant sources a wave length of the light is being stretched as space is expanded. A wave of light spans many units of space (they are small) so when they are stretched (more sapce is added between the start and end of the wave) the wave is stretched.

A wave in this region of space today would occupy less units of space as compared to the waves generated long ago when space was smaller, when they arrive here. At source the wave lengths are the same in two different parts of the universe (if you could compare them) however they change overtime because space itself is growing. No just that the source of the light is moving away at speed.

Would that account for some of red shift. If so... the universe may not be expanding as fast as we think.

My idea is not so stupid now after reading this article.

I clearly shows that the author thinks that space is being created... not just expanded.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci ... 22bbl.html

Article extract:

Stars will disappear, the sun will go out and then the Earth and our bodies will be ripped into pieces.

This Big Rip might be the way our universe ends and it may happen "on literally a human time scale", Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt says.

At a public talk by the Australian Astronomical Observatory in Sydney last night, Professor Schmidt - a joint winner of the 2011 Nobel prize for physics - described how our universe is rapidly expanding.

The 'Big Rip' ... it'll end Earth.

The expansion will eventually force our neighbouring galaxy - Andromeda Spiral - to merge with our Milky Way in about 3 billion years, Professor Schmidt said.

While it sounds messy, the space between our stars means it will be less like a train wreck and more like two swarms of bees coming together, he said.

Nevertheless, it will irrecoverably alter our view from Earth.

"We will see stars but we will look out into an empty universe," he said.

Professor Schmidt said only 4½ per cent of the universe is made up of things we can see - atoms, while the rest is invisible.

Dark matter makes up 24 per cent and dark energy the remaining 72 per cent.

Once this dark energy takes over, it will cause more space to expand, creating more dark energy, "which can then push harder against gravity, creating even more space".

"The creation of space eventually can happen even more quickly than light can travel."

This could lead to one of the "craziest theoretical ideas" and one of Professor Schmidt's favourites - the Big Rip.

"You will see the stars in the sky start disappearing as they accelerate beyond the speed of light.

"Then one day the sun will go out.

"Then, not too long after, you and the Earth will be ripped into pieces."

Or it could end in a less dramatic fashion.

Either way, Professor Schmidt said, unless dark energy suddenly disappears very quickly the universe it seems is fated to expand and fade away.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci ... z214QEoQie

[Swami Dring]

How could the gravitational fields of other universes be overwhelming he gravitational field of our own universe, given the inverse square law?

I guess the vastly greater mass, and therefore gravitational field, of a multitude of other universes would exceed that within our own universe (provided, obviously, that they were close enough).