Expanding universe: More big for the bang

(NASA Image)

After the big bang, the universe began expanding.  This has allegedly been going on for 13.7 billion years.

Nevertheless, scientists still know little about the actual process.  Researchers have recently gleaned that this expansion rate is “5 to 9 percent faster than previously thought.”

If the additional percentage seems insignificant within the vast scope of things, consider this:  It means “that the distance between cosmic objects will double in another 9.8 billion years.”

Then there’s the matter of dark matter.  Could this be what’s adding to the expansion equation?  Perhaps it “has some kind of properties we understand even less than its other properties.”  A form of “dark radiation” (“subatomic particles like the neutrino”) may need to be factored in.  Dark energy might also be “pushing galaxies apart faster than we think…”  

What we don’t know seems far greater, in every sense of the word, than what we do.   

Resources

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/03/hold-on-tight-the-universe-is-expanding-faster-than-we-thought/ 

Copyright June 5, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved