Saturday, March 10, 2018

Perfectly Balanced Universe

Another reminder from Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry:

  "Since both mass and energy cause space-time to warp, or curve, omega tells us the shape of the cosmos. If omega is less than one, the actual mass-energy falls below the critical value, and the universe expands forever in every direction for all of time, taking on the shape of a saddle, in which initially parallel lines diverge. If omega equals one, the universe expands forever, but only barely so. In that case the shape is flat, preserving all the geometric rules we learned in high school about parallel lines. If omega exceeds one, parallel lines converge, and the universe curves back on itself, ultimately recollapsing into the fireball whence it came."

What a perfectly balanced universe in which we live!


Graphics: Wikipedia, Northern Arizona University

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