The Universe is flat?
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 571
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It is flat, it just doesn't look like a table top. When physicists say the universe is flat they mean that two beams of parallel light are projected they will remain parallel. The other hypothesis for the universe were closed and open, where the light beams would either eventually converge or diverge.
If the density of the universe is dense enough there will be a "big crunch", if the universe is not dense enough there will be a "big freeze".
However I believe the prevailing theory of today is that the universe is going to keep on expanding because of dark energy.
But what would happen if it stops expanding
However I believe the prevailing theory of today is that the universe is going to keep on expanding because of dark energy.
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,342
Likes: 103
From: Raleigh
This is a great summarization:
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_shape.html
...suggests that the Universe is infinite in extent; however, since the Universe has a finite age, we can only observe a finite volume of the Universe. All we can truly conclude is that the Universe is much larger than the volume we can directly observe.
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