Does space expand and contract?

Even though we don’t actually know what dark energy is, we can now answer the original question — yes, the universe will expand forever and we’ll experience a “big freeze”, not a “big crunch”. So the universe is going to last a very long time, but the future will be cold and dark.

Is space a thing or nothing?

Space is the nothing between things. Space – nothing – is filled with fields, gravitational fields, EM fields, photons, neutrinos, and perhaps more forms of energy yet to be discovered by physics.

Is space just a concept?

Newton argued that space was more than the relations between material objects. He argued it was an absolute entity, that everything moves in relation to it. He believed space is just a concept humans use to make sense of the world, rather than a real entity.

Why is space empty?

Even a “perfect” vacuum would still hold vacuum energy, the Higgs field, and spacetime curvature. Space seems empty to humans because we can’t see most of the stuff there, and because there is much less air than we are used to. This chain reaction is started by vacuum fluctuations.

Is space expanding or is spacetime expanding?

Space is itself infinitely elastic; it is not expanding into anything.” The lengthening, or redshifting, of light that Primack describes was first observed by Edwin Hubble in 1929.

Can there be nothingness?

There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist.

Does time exist in empty space?

If the vacuum exists, time absolutely exists as well. For example, if the vacuum were to exist near a source of radiation, particles. They could enter the given vacuum as time passes by so time absolutely exists.

Does space exist without matter?

No. no arena in which matter, energy and gravity operate which is not affected by matter, energy and gravity. …

What is Einstein’s theory of space and time?

Essentially, Einstein thought space and time were intertwined in an infinite “fabric,” like an outstretched blanket. A massive object such as the Sun bends the spacetime blanket with its gravity, such that light no longer travels in a straight line as it passes by the Sun.

Does the universe expand into anything outside of space?

The universe does not expand “into” anything and does not require space to exist “outside” it. Technically, neither space nor objects in space move. Instead it is the metric (which governing the size and geometry of spacetime itself) that changes in scale.

What is the scientific consensus on space expansion?

Based on large quantities of experimental observation and theoretical work, the scientific consensus is that space itself is expanding, and that it expanded very rapidly within the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. This kind of expansion is known as “metric expansion”.

How does the expansion of the universe relate to general relativity?

As an effect of general relativity, the expansion of the universe is different from the expansions and explosions seen in daily life. It is a property of the universe as a whole and occurs throughout the universe, rather than happening just to one part of the universe.