Quote:
Originally Posted by mikesbytes
Hi newbie here
I'm interested as to whether inflation is occurring at the same rate throughout the observable universe
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Hi Mike,
Your question sounds simple, but is, in fact, quite complex.
The current thinking, as expressed by others here, is that the universe is in an expansion stage, rather than inflation, and that the expansion is accelerating.
This raises many, many questions. But first you need to conceptualise some very important concepts.
The Big Bang. Didn't happen anywhere, it happened everywhere, at once, because in this instant the Universe came into being. It was, in the first instance extremely small, but still contained everything in the universe today. The universe we see today is the same stuff, just expanded out in a more familiar form, with our familiar forces etc. You must try to envisage something just popping into existence, but doing so everywhere, that way, there is no origin. This raises more questions, like, when did gravity become a force in the universe? Has the gravitational force always been as strong as it is now? Without Baryonic matter (atoms etc) does gravity actually exist?
Now, you have that conceptualised, you may be able to see that everything is moving apart, with the apparent exceptions of localised phenomena, as previously explained (Andromeda). An analogy is raisons in a cake as it rises. Now consider that the rate of expansion is increasing and that the further a thing is away from us the faster it is accelerating away. There come a time/place/distance when this acceleration must, if it is consistent acceleration, then exceed the speed of light. At which point the object becomes invisible to us. So there may be more to the universe than meets the eye, literally.
If you are really interested in this subject, there are many good Cosmology resources on line, or go to a library (maybe a local Astronomical Society) and borrow some books. It is a fascinating subject of which I have only scratched the surface.
Cheers
Stuart