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In the universe, (as our current knowledge tells us) there are about 200 billion galaxies, each containing about 200 billion stars-and that's only about 4 percent of the entire matter of the universe. The rest has yet to be proven or seen-it has been theorized to consist of an invisible halo of dark matter and dark energy; massive particles that have the ability to pass through normal matter and are acting as an anti-gravitational force which is pulling the matter of the universe outward and causing it to accelerate rather than slow down.
Prior to this theory, it was believed the momentum of the big bang would decrease over time, and everything in space would eventually slow down until it just stopped, at which point all the stars would eventually burn out and the universe would experience a "deep freeze." The other proposed theory is that the universe will continue outwards, slow down, and then get pulled back by gravity to it's massive origin in what's known as the "big crunch." However, now scientists believe there might be a new possibility; dark matter and ebergy will continue to pull matter farther outward until there will no longer be any visible stars from earth-everything will have moved too far away, and we will truly be "alone.".
um, yeah, I'm into astronomy. Just a little bit.
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My love will go up in flames for you...
Last edited by CityKitty on May-23-2004 at 21:19
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