The Accelerating Expansion of the Universe
I’ve read in Scientific American and other places that the acceleration of the expansion of the universe is increasing, (possibly due to dark energy), first postulated by Einstein as the cosmological constant.
This is the beginning of the end of all knowledge about what was and is. As space empties out, our galaxy-to-be will come to be surrounded by a total void, past which we can never see. It will be as in 1908, when scientists thought our galaxy constituted the entire universe, for the quickening expansion will pull galaxies apart faster than light, causing them to drop out of view. Beyond a certain event horizon, no matter or radiation will be able to reach us.
In five billion years, although our sun will be a red giant, the Andromeda galaxy will loom large in the night sky for those who remain in our solar system, for our Local Group of galaxies will collapse into a single enormous SuperCluster of stars, but all the other billions of galaxies will disappear into an oblivion beyond the event horizon. We will once again live in a supposed island universe. Even the CMBR will be so faint as to be undetectable.
Even now, the view of the early universe has pretty much vanished.
Will this note and other data survive to inform the astronomers of the future?
(Say 'hello' to Molly.)