Re: Does space expand as a sphere?

From: BluMax (alsimcoe_at_alsimcoe.com)
Date: 12/02/04 

Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 01:51:37 -0500

On 2004-12-01 16:59:16 -0500, mojo@devilrock.whiteoaks.com (Morris Jones) said:

> BluMax <alsimcoe@alsimcoe.com> wrote:
>> How do you figure that Space is expanding?
>>
>> Is their Phisics that deals with this?
>
> "Space is expanding" is a deduction from this famous observation of
> William Hubble: The spectrum of the light from galaxies is shifted
> lower in frequency, toward red, in an amount inversely proportional
> to their brightness. In other words, the dimmer the galaxy, the more
> red-shifted its spectrum.
>
> The only known physical cause for making light waves longer is to have
> the source moving away from you. The greater the red shift, the faster
> the object is moving away. Light is doppler shifted.
>
> The reasonable deduction is that space is expanding.
>
> Unless a different cause for the cosmological red shift is discovered,
> we're sticking to the hypothesis that "space is expanding."
>
> That whole business that "space is expanding" leads to some other
> significant ideas. If space is expanding, that means that in the past
> it had to be smaller.
>
> So when the physicists start rewinding the clock, they eventually get to
> the theory that space at one time occupied a single point. The math
> gets really weird long before that, of course.
>
> This is now what cosmologists call the "standard model" -- what Sir Fred
> Hoyle derisively called the "big bang."
>
> There have been other observations that seem to confirm this hypothesis
> and create others, like the observations of light curves from supernovae
> in extremely distant galaxies. Those observations seem to show that
> the rate of expansion is accelerating -- exactly the opposite of what
> was expected. (It's as if you tossed an apple upward and had it shoot
> away from you instead of slowing and falling back toward your hand.)

I am still wondering if the space that the objects in the universe
are moving into is infinite. I mean, why not?

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Time dilation and expanding space
    ... I think you mean that *spacetime* is expanding. ... Objects are not moving inertially ie that are not moving ... In other words, in 3D+T, distant galaxies are not moving away from the ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Expanding matter, expanding universe, red shift of light.
    ... Imagine a balloon, and galaxies on the surface, inflate the balloon, ... at no time would any galaxy be moving towards us. ... Matter is expanding. ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Expanding Space
    ... It means the volume of the Universe increases with time. ... Universe is expanding into something, ... when the objects are 2 galaxies or all galaxies? ... moving away from us at equal "speeds". ...
    (sci.physics)
  • Re: Time dilation and expanding space
    ... distances galaxies recede with distances increasing by ... I think you mean that *spacetime* is expanding. ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Re: Entropy and the "big bang"
    ... The fact that the expansion rate is increasing refutes the ... idea that there are regions that are no longer expanding. ... based on observations that show galaxies are moving away from each ... My analogy of an "unrolling carpet" only explains that one part of the ...
    (sci.physics)