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The accelerated expansion of the universe is thought to have begun since the universe entered its dark-energy-dominated era roughly 5 billion years ago. [ 8 ] [ notes 1 ] Within the framework of general relativity , an accelerated expansion can be accounted for by a positive value of the cosmological constant Λ , equivalent to the presence of ...
As the universe expanded and cooled, the rate of recombination of electrons and protons to form neutral hydrogen was higher than the ionization rate. At around 379,000 years after the Big Bang ( redshift z = 1089), this recombination left most normal matter in the form of neutral hydrogen.
A higher expansion rate would imply a smaller characteristic size of CMB fluctuations, and vice versa. The Planck collaboration measured the expansion rate this way and determined H 0 = 67.4 ± 0.5 (km/s)/Mpc. [26] There is a disagreement between this measurement and the supernova-based measurements, known as the Hubble tension.
The universe's expansion rate, a figure called the Hubble constant, is measured in kilometers per second per megaparsec, a distance equal to 3.26 million light-years. A light-year is the distance ...
The universe is now an almost pure vacuum (possibly accompanied with the presence of a false vacuum). The expansion of the universe slowly causes itself to cool down to absolute zero. The universe now reaches an even lower energy state than the earlier one mentioned. [50] [51]
In physical cosmology, the Big Rip is a hypothetical cosmological model concerning the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, and even spacetime itself, is progressively torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future, until distances between particles will infinitely increase.
This occurs as a result of the expansion of the universe, as their interaction rates decrease (and mean free paths increase) up to this critical point. The two verified instances of decoupling since the Big Bang which are most often discussed are photon decoupling and neutrino decoupling, as these led to the cosmic microwave background and ...
The rapid expansion immediately after the Big Bounce explains why the present Universe at largest scales appears spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic. As the density of the Universe decreases, the effects of torsion weaken and the Universe smoothly enters the radiation-dominated era.