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Asked by scibtings123 to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by dasilvathomas.
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Edward Bovill answered on 12 Mar 2013:
Physicists currently believe that the universe is still expanding, but that the amount of matter in the universe is pretty much constant. This means that all the galaxies are constantly getting further away from each other.
Imagine you have a deflated balloon and you draw some little dots all over it. These dots represent the galaxies and the balloon represents the universe. As you blow up the balloon, the dots get further and further apart, just like the galaxies are getting further apart as the universe expands.
What happens in the future is still unknown. Some scientists believe that the universe will continue expanding forever and the stars and galaxies will get further and further apart until they are all so distant the night sky will appear dark. Other theories claim that the universe will reach a maximum size and then start to contract again, getting smaller and smaller until all the matter is squeezed into one point (exactly like the Big Bang in reverse).
Either way, all these theories are talking about things happening over billions and billions of years, so we’ll not live to see any of it happening.
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Comments
donkey123 commented on :
I believe that the universe is constantly expanding, tbh.
thedons13 commented on :
In my option, the universe is still growing but we just don’t realise it is happening.