Why Don't Stars Expand with Space?

  • Thread starter Thread starter menniandscience
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Space Stars
AI Thread Summary
The expansion of the universe occurs primarily on vast scales, affecting distances between galaxies rather than individual stars or planets. Local gravitational forces, such as those binding stars and galaxies, counteract the expansion, preventing them from growing larger. The analogy of a dot on a balloon illustrates that while the balloon expands, the dot does not increase in size. Additionally, light from distant stars travels through expanding space, but the local gravitational effects mean that the distance to Earth does not change significantly during its journey. Therefore, stars and planets remain unaffected by the expansion of space around them.
menniandscience
Messages
98
Reaction score
2
Hi! my question is, if space expand, how come the stars (and planets) don't? they are part of the space and not "sitting inside" or somthing like that. meaning, the Earth should grown bigger all the time.

you can think about marking a dot on a bloon, as you blow air inside the bloon starts to swell and the dot GETTING BIGGER AS WELL.

a related question, that might be answered by answering the last one, is if a star '90 light years' (random) away from Earth send it's light rays toward us, and the space is spanding, then the conclusion is - by the time that light get to us, the planet will be maybe 150 light years away!

i need clarification
thanks!
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
The expansion of the Universe is said to only occur on very very large scales - over galactic distances. As such, you would never be able to sense or measure it on such a small scale as the diameter of a star, or even 90 light years.

Also, just because the distance between two points in space is increasing, I don't think that means that locally an object has to be expanding with the space around it.
 
You can think of the expansion of the universe as a very weak force, individual stars and galaxies are held together by gravity. It's only between very distant galaxies where the gravitational force is very weak that the expansion of the universe is significant.
 
This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it less beautiful to me (n.b. the posts must of course comply with the PF guidelines, i.e. regarding science, only mainstream science is allowed, fringe/pseudoscience is not allowed). n.b. I start this...
Asteroid, Data - 1.2% risk of an impact on December 22, 2032. The estimated diameter is 55 m and an impact would likely release an energy of 8 megatons of TNT equivalent, although these numbers have a large uncertainty - it could also be 1 or 100 megatons. Currently the object has level 3 on the Torino scale, the second-highest ever (after Apophis) and only the third object to exceed level 1. Most likely it will miss, and if it hits then most likely it'll hit an ocean and be harmless, but...

Similar threads

Replies
9
Views
2K
Replies
25
Views
2K
Replies
11
Views
2K
Replies
7
Views
3K
Replies
22
Views
3K
Replies
12
Views
2K
Back
Top