Whats going to happen?

I know the universe is expanding, but from where and if its expanding in all directions doesnt that mean flying debris and possibly a star or something might hit earth or something like that that was tossed out in our direction billions of years ago.i mean, the closest star is still four years away but what about the future?

Schmidt1989

Expanding in all directions means everything is getting farther away from everything else.

Although sure it is possible a star got slingshot around a blackhole somewhere in our galaxy and one day will go blasting straight through our solar system.

> or a chunk of dark matter wanders into our sun's gravity... or another galaxy collides with our own. sh*t happens, yah know?

[edit on 28-2-2005 by apc]

Originally posted by apc
Expanding in all directions means everything is getting farther away from everything else.

LOL, but its impossible for something to be getting farther away from everything else, it has to be heading for something, ill try to uplaod a photo for you to see what im talking about.

Uhm..................... ok.

Example:

Take a balloon. Draw dots all over the balloon. Now blow up the balloon.

yeah, then watch where the peices hit, they hit the wall or table or something, there has to be and end somwhere.

The answer you seek.. is 42.

Unless your an astronaut its a pretty safe bet your not getting off this planet alive. YOU are going to die and everyone reading this thread is going to die as well.

What differance does it make if a star comes shooting thru our galaxy and takes us out or if a car comes crashing thru your wall and takes you out. Either way your still just as dead.

If your heart is at peace with the life your living and your soul is at peace with your creator, whoever you consider that creator to be, than everything else is just icing on the cake.

I worry about my children, I worry about my bills, I worry about the things I can do something about. I don't even consider it worry, I consider the options that I have some control over in the situations in my life.

I'll be damned if I waste my time worrying about the things that I can do absolutely nothing about, like space debris hitting the planet.

If it happens, i'll just enjoy the show till its over.

Love and light,

Wupy

that was strong wupy, that touched me in a place i dont like to be touched... surely were all going to die, but i do beleive we go somehwere other than heaven or hell after we die.

Nice drawing

But the idea behind the big bang is that there isnt anything spewing out of a "center" anymore... everything began expanding at the same time and the same rate. The balloon example is a good one. If you blow up the balloon, every dot moves away from every other dot, and there is no mass of dots within the balloon moving outward towards the others.

i know, its kinda a drawing of then and now mixed together, but i mean if stuf is still going in an outward motion, its bound to hit something right?

like this

>>>*>>>O>>>*>>>

thats star going really fast through space and going through earth, but i dunno its hard to explain.

Are you asking if the universe has an edge? Or what's outside the universe, or am I misunderstanding the question?

Sure it could happen.. but it wouldnt be due to universal expansion. It would be within our own galaxy.. probably a star closer to the black hole in the center orbiting near another black hole somewhere in an orbit farther out and getting dragged into a collision course with our solar system. Galaxies do collide. With hubble we can see galaxies just starting to collide, in mid collision, and well after they ripped eachother to shreds. Most likely because one encountered a supermassive black hole which sent it on a course of destruction.

But ever since the first instant after the big bang (if that is the theory you ascribe to) every bit of matter (and energy as I believe matter is energy) has been clumping together and moving away from all the other clumps.

Great question- is the observable red shift that shows the universe actually expanding at an increasing rate apply to galaxies moving apart from each other, or does it indicate that the milky way itself is expanding?

Galaxies are moving away from eachother. I haven't read anything about the dynamics of our galaxy, but I would think if anything it is very very very slowly collapsing in spurts... whenever the black hole at the core goes active and starts sucking up the surrounding stars until it once again goes "dormant." However the birth of new stars may balance out the destruction of old.

ok, this has gotten confusing, but what i truely mean is that for everything to be moving further away from us(as in earth itself) in all directions, thta would mean the center of the universe is right at earths point, it cant be, where it is anywhere else, if somethings moving in one direction it has to hit something, right unless it gets lucky and doesnt hit anything at all.

Don't think of it so much as the galaxies themselves are moving, rather that space is expanding and 'dragging' the galaxies along with it.
Again refer back to the balloon example.

> note this is not to say galaxies don't move within space... they do... but the above is just a way to understand their movement relative to eachother.

[edit on 1-3-2005 by apc]

ok the expanding thing made sense, so i guess that if were all moving togther we cant get hit unless its moving much fast than us, but now, is everything moving at the same rate?

That is a question that is still a heated debate and probably will be so for some time to come.

oh ic, thanks apc, youve answered my questions perfectly. and i seem to be learning alot about astronomy and astrology this week, i like it.