Black holes and the accelerating expansion of the Universe

[agreen]

Ok; I'm not a physicist... I'm not a mathematician... I'm not even in school, I'm just a computer guy who watches the Science channel a lot :) So don't yell at me... be gentle :)

I've heard and read that the rate of expansion of the Universe may be increasing.

Is it possible that it only appears that way, because we are experiencing time compressing effects from the black hole at the center of our galaxy? In other words, time is going slower for us as compared to other galaxies further out?

 

[zhermes]

No promises about being gentle ;)

Is it possible that it only appears that way, because we are experiencing time compressing effects from the black hole at the center of our galaxy? In other words, time is going slower for us as compared to other galaxies further out?

Nope. The general relativity (GR) effects (e.g. time dilation) are entirely negligible this far away. Those effects are only significant within a few schwarzschild radii of the BH.

But also, if the explanation was something like what you're suggesting--we'd be able to tell. If we were effected enough by GR time dilation to effect those measurements (i'm not sure if/how that could even hypothetically happen), it wouldn't be very hard to compensate. As long as you stay outside the event horizon, GR enables extremely accurate calculations and compensations (e.g. for GPS).

Good question though.

 

[agreen]

Very cool, thanks for the explanation :)