Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Cosmic Acceleration

After Hubble has observed redshift of distant galaxies we came to conclusion that the universe is expanding. But can you try to imagine what was it like just after the Big Bang? All the matter in the universe was very close and considering the gravitational forces everything should collapse back in a short time. So, why it continued to expand as it did? Why the universe did not contract on itself in a Big Crunch? It had to be an incredible force to overcome the gravitational pull. That is where dark energy comes in, as hypothetical form of energy which permeates the universe and has strong negative pressure.

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