And so, Einstein reasoned, a counterbalancing force would need to provide a repulsive push. Across large distances, the force that shapes the cosmos is the attractive pull of gravity. A static situation, like a stalemate in a tug of war, requires equal but opposite forces that cancel each other.

He modified the equations of general relativity so that the mathematics would yield an unchanging cosmos. It flew in the face of the prevailing wisdom that, over the largest of scales, the universe was fixed and unchanging.Įinstein responded swiftly. He’d spent 10 grueling years developing the general theory of relativity, seeking a better understanding of gravity, but to him the notion of an expanding or contracting cosmos seemed blatantly erroneous. In fact, so malleable is space that, according to the math, the size of the universe necessarily changes over time: the fabric of space must expand or contract - it can’t stay put.įor Einstein, this was an unacceptable conclusion. Instead, through his general theory of relativity, Einstein found that space, and time too, can bend, twist and warp, responding much as a trampoline does to a jumping child. This story of discovery begins a century ago with Albert Einstein, who realized that space is not an immutable stage on which events play out, as Isaac Newton had envisioned.

And the future that the data suggest is particularly disquieting - because of something called dark energy. When we look at such ancient light, we are seeing - literally - ancient times.ĭuring the past decade, as observations of such ancient starlight have provided deep insight into the universe’s past, they have also, surprisingly, provided deep insight into the nature of the future. The light from more distant objects, captured by powerful telescopes, has been traveling toward us far longer than that, sometimes for billions of years. The pinpoints of starlight we see with the naked eye are photons that have been streaming toward us for a few years or a few thousand.

It is the one arena in which we can actually witness history. Cosmology, the study of the origin and evolution of the universe, is different. Instead, they generally have to piece together remote conditions using remnants like weathered fossils, decaying parchments or mummified remains. IN a great many fields, researchers would give their eyeteeth to have a direct glimpse of the past.

Moi3d can't find naked edges