On Sun, Jun 1, 2025 at 2:50 AM Alan Grayson <[email protected]> wrote:
*> Why will the universe keep expanding into the future? I don't think > that's a given based on what we know. AG * *Since we don't know what's causing the universe to accelerate we don't know if that acceleration will continue at a constant rate, and thus we can not speak with any authority about what the ultimate fate of the universe will be; for all we know the acceleration might drop to zero or even reverse itself. In fact, very recently there have been indications that the rate of acceleration, called a "jerk" in physics, is negative so the acceleration of the universe is getting smaller. The evidence for that is only at 3.2 Sigma and you need 5 Sigma to claim a discovery, but it's enough to be very interesting. * *Incidentally the rate of change of a jerk is called a snap, the rate of change of a snap is called a crackle, and the rate of change of a crackle is called a pop. In his talks Nobel prize winning astronomer Adam Riess likes to show a slide of a newspaper showing a picture of him under a bold headline that says "A COSMIC JERK".* *John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>* rb2 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv3ZKXnzV5zsS6y40SL%2BOCUqWK7%3DuLXW561%3D1NNJx3Y9oQ%40mail.gmail.com.
