February 28, 2008
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmThe End of Cosmology [Video]
An accelerating universe wipes out traces of its own origins
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A decade ago astronomers made the revolutionary discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. They are still working out is implications.
The quickening expansion will eventually pull galaxies apart faster than light, causing them to drop out of view. This process eliminates reference points for measuring expansion and dilutes the distinctive products of the big bang to nothingness. In short, it erases all the signs that a big bang ever occurred.
To our distant descendants, the universe will look like a small puddle of stars in an endless, changeless void.
What knowledge has the universe already erased?
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