The Expansion of the Universe

 

expand.gif (5888 bytes)

 

In the very early universe (when it was 1 second old) ,
the outward expansion enery and the inward gravitational energy
were in balance to a precision of
1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000 (1015)!

If the expansion energy then was slightly larger,
the expansion would have been
too fast
for stars and galaxies to clump together.

If the gravitational energy then was slightly larger,
the expansion would have been
too slow ---
the expansion would have reversed itself long ago
and the universe would have already ended in a Big Crunch.

Fortunately for us, the Big Bang expansion was finely tuned!

 

index | back | next