Here is yet another study which concluded that the Universe will
expand forever. This means that as far as the empirical evidence
goes, this is the only Universe that has ever existed. So
non-theists have to find other, non-empirical ways to account for a
Universe which came into being out of nothing, as John Gribbin
realised:
"The biggest problem with the Big Bang theory of the origin of the
Universe is philosophical-perhaps even theological-what was there
before the bang? This problem alone was sufficient to give a great
initial impetus to the Steady State theory; but with that theory now
sadly in conflict with the observations, the best way round this
initial difficulty is provided by a model in which the universe
expands from a singularity [that is, a beginning], collapses back
again, and repeats the cycle indefinitely" (Gribbin J., "Oscillating
Universe Bounces Back", Nature 259, 1976, pp15-16, in Ross H., "The
Creator and the Cosmos", 1993, pp55-56).
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Big crunch idea on universe exploded
WASHINGTON
Research by US astronomers has debunked the "collapsing universe"
theory in favour of the belief that the universe will continue
expanding forever
THE "big bang" will not be followed by the "big crunch". That's the
conclusion of five teams of astronomers who used different
techniques to study the future of the universe.
Ruth Daly, a Princeton University astronomer, summed up the
findings: "It is quite clear now that the universe will expand forever."
The astronomy teams were trying to determine if there was enough
matter in the universe to force it to stop expanding and start
collapsing inward.
Their findings, presented to the American Astronomical Society
suggest that there will never be a grand crunch.
Most astronomers accept the idea that the universe began with a "big
bang", a moment about 15 billion years ago when a superdense point
exploded in the most gigantic bang imaginable.
It is believed that since that moment, all matter in the universe has
been expanding outward. The controversy among astronomers is
whether the universe is "closed" or "open".
In a closed universe the expansion should continue until gravity from
the mass of matter cancelled the outward force and the motion
reversed directions. In effect, the universe would then collapse inward
until it was crammed into a single point of unimaginable density-"the
big crunch".
But astronomers
from Princeton, Yale, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
and the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Institute reported that all
of their studies showed the universe was "open". In effect, they found
that it would continue to expand, and even accelerate, forever.
Neta Bahcall, working with a second Princeton team, said her studies
of the universe's biggest structures-immense clusters of hundreds of
galaxies, each with billions of stars-showed the universe was too
lightweight to "crunch" .
"It has only about 20 per cent of the mass needed to close," she said.
Peter Garnavich, of the Harvard-Smithsonian, Saul Perlmutter, of the
Lawrence Berkeley, and Bradley Schaefer, of Yale, studied
supernovae, which are exploding stars, to measure the rate of
expansion of the universe.
By looking deep into the universe, the astronomers could measure the
rate of expansion early in the universe's history.
Knowing the speed of the expansion was essential for estimating the
density of matter in the universe and thus determining if the
expansion would continue.
Dr Garnavich said his team was 95 per cent certain that "the density
of matter is insufficient to halt the expansion of the universe".
Some of the supernovae studied by the astronomers are the farthest
stellar explosions sighted.
Dr Daly used a system which measured the distance and motion of
radio "hot spots", intense sources of natural radio signals emitted
from very hot stars.
She said her data agreed with the others – the universe was open and
would expand forever.
However, that did not mean nothing would change. Eventually all the
fuel in the stars would burn out and the universe would become cold
and dark, "with nothing left but rocks".
But relax, said Dr Schaefer. That would not happen for another 100
billion years, give or take a few billion.
("Big crunch idea on universe exploded", The West Australian,
Saturday January 10, 1998, p46)
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God bless.
Steve
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Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Steve.Jones@health.wa.gov.au
Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ Phone +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, West Australia v "Test everything." (1Thess 5:21)
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