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Old 09-08-2009, 03:35 PM
xelasnave's Avatar
xelasnave
Gravity does not Suck

xelasnave is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Tabulam
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro View Post
It depends on whether the accelerated expansion of the Universe has remained constant since the end of the Inflation era. (And that is assuming of course the acceleration started from that point of time.)

Since the Universe has expanded by a certain amount in the period of time it takes the light for distant objects to reach us a scale factor is introduced. The scale factor can only be reasonably accurate if the acceleration has stayed constant.

If the acceleration has varied with time then we have no way of accurately determining how large the observable Universe is.

Steven
Thank you Steven... and if the acceleration of the expansion is as suspected I guess that makes it harder again.

alex
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