The graph on panel five was adapted from Figure 6.8 in THE ANTHROPIC COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE by Barrow and Tipler. I'll explain cosmic inflation later–when we get to ensemble and multiverse theories–but we saw spectacular confirmation for that theory in the recent scientific findings of the BICEP2 team…gravity waves from the beginning of time. More next time, when we tackle the biggest coincidence so far.
Back around the turn of the century, there two teams of cosmologists that wanted to determine if there was enough gravity in the universe to slow down the expanding universe that Hubble had discovered, to the point where it would contract into a Big Crunch or not. One team liked the Big Crunch idea while the other was leaning to an ever-expanding universe, just going slower and slower, as the universe slowly ran out of energy, the so-called Heat Death of the universe. To everybody's great surprise, it turns out that both teams were wrong. The universe's expansion is not slowing down, but speeding up, leading to the current theory of dark energy to explain this observed acceleration of the universe. What is the next surprise that we are yet to find?
Nutster at 7:29AM, May 4, 2014
Back around the turn of the century, there two teams of cosmologists that wanted to determine if there was enough gravity in the universe to slow down the expanding universe that Hubble had discovered, to the point where it would contract into a Big Crunch or not. One team liked the Big Crunch idea while the other was leaning to an ever-expanding universe, just going slower and slower, as the universe slowly ran out of energy, the so-called Heat Death of the universe. To everybody's great surprise, it turns out that both teams were wrong. The universe's expansion is not slowing down, but speeding up, leading to the current theory of dark energy to explain this observed acceleration of the universe. What is the next surprise that we are yet to find?