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The paradox is that a static, infinitely old universe with an infinite number of stars distributed in an infinitely large space would be bright rather than dark. [1] A view of a square section of four concentric shells. To show this, we divide the universe into a series of concentric shells, 1 light year thick.
The universe could be infinite in extent or it could be finite; but the evidence that leads to the inflationary model of the early universe also implies that the "total universe" is much larger than the observable universe. Thus any edges or exotic geometries or topologies would not be directly observable, since light has not reached scales on ...
This future history and the timeline below assume the continued expansion of the universe. If space in the universe begins to contract, subsequent events in the timeline may not occur because the Big Crunch, the collapse of the universe into a hot, dense state similar to that after the Big Bang, will prevail. [14] [15]
The Big Bang event 13-14 billion years ago initiated the universe, and it has been expanding ever since. Scientists in 1998 disclosed that this expansion was actually accelerating, with dark ...
In a closed universe, gravity eventually stops the expansion of the universe, after which it starts to contract until all matter in the universe collapses to a point, a final singularity termed the "Big Crunch", the opposite of the Big Bang. If, however, the universe contains dark energy, then the resulting repulsive force may be sufficient to ...
The heat death paradox, also known as thermodynamic paradox, Clausius' paradox, and Kelvin's paradox, [1] is a reductio ad absurdum argument that uses thermodynamics to show the impossibility of an infinitely old universe.
If the universe were sufficiently dense, k would equal +1, meaning that its average curvature throughout is positive and the universe will eventually recollapse in a Big Crunch, [157] possibly starting a new universe in a Big Bounce. Conversely, if the universe were insufficiently dense, k would equal 0 or −1 and the universe would expand ...
The Big Crunch is a hypothetical scenario for the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the expansion of the universe eventually reverses and the universe recollapses, ultimately causing the cosmic scale factor to reach absolute zero, an event potentially followed by a reformation of the universe starting with another Big Bang.