What is the current state of the universe and its expansion?

[_X3R0_]

My friends and I have had an ongoing argument for the past week. We have been trying to argue if the universe is expanding or contracting in on itself? Also for further curiosity i wanted to know if it is expanding is it slowing down or speeding up? Also i wanted to know if anyone knew what cuased it. If it isn't expanding and its collapsing in on itself what is making it do this, or if its expanding now and going to collapse into itself later i would also like to know how that works. Sorry if i was confusing thankyou in advance.

 

[rtharbaugh1]

My friends and I have had an ongoing argument for the past week. We have been trying to argue if the universe is expanding or contracting in on itself? Also for further curiosity i wanted to know if it is expanding is it slowing down or speeding up? Also i wanted to know if anyone knew what cuased it. If it isn't expanding and its collapsing in on itself what is making it do this, or if its expanding now and going to collapse into itself later i would also like to know how that works. Sorry if i was confusing thankyou in advance.

I think the consensus among scientists would be that the evidence strongly suggests that the observable universe is expanding. This evidence is red-shift data from the most distant observed galaxies. Some recent discussion of the red shift data suggests that the expansion of the universe is increasing...leading to the search for "dark energy" which can account for this increasing expansion.

One must be careful to specify that we are talking about the observable universe, although this detail is often neglected, or assumed as understood, in scientific conversation. We really don't know anything about what we cannot observe. It is possible that just beyond the reach of our currently best telescopes, there is a big smiley face peering in at us. However it seems more likely that the next generation of telescopes will see more of the same thing we see now, only in greater detail. Perhaps they will give us better answers to questions about gravitational lensing, the formation of the early universe, even clues to the shape of spacetime.

Be well,

Richard