Current evidence from microwave background radiation suggests that the expansion of the universe is exponentially increasing by the second- at phenomenal rates. Now, with that given, can the universe reach a point where it's expanding faster than the speed of light?
Not according to Einstein's theory of special relativity. The speed of light IS the speed limit of the universe. Nothing goes faster than it.
Yes, and no. In absolute terms, the expansion will never reach the speed of light, much less exceed it. But in relative terms it will at some point seem as it do. If two objects are moving away from eachother, each at at 50% of the speed of light, if you are observing from one of those objects, the other object will seem as it is moving away from you at the speed of light. At some point, the expansion of the universe will/might reach within a fraction of the speed of light, and it will seem as objects are flying apart from eachother at a much faster speed than that of light.
The way I had it explained to me was this: the whole relativity thing only applies to things that are moving through space. Since expansion doesn't involve anything moving, per se, it just involves the creation of new space between objects, there's nothing stopping the distance between two objects increasing at a rate greater than the speed of light. There was a fantastic article talking about this exact question and many others pertaining to the Big Bang published in SciAm a few years back. Here's the relevant page: Misconceptions about the Big Bang: Scientific American
You are right ofcouse Sikander. It is wrong to think of the objects moving, it is the space between them that are expanding. That is, where gravity do not function as a brake, there are in essence no known limit to how fast that expansion may proceed. The distance do not increase through space, but by space. A bit sad really...
would the expansion of the unievrse at a speed greater than the speed of light not account for the percieved infinite mass of said universe... but nah, whats the 'edge' of the universe... at this edge, is the universe a solid, is there matter, antimatter, does it follow our relativistic laws of physics... are we observing all there is to see, or simply all we think there is i dont know enough to contemplate on these things beyond pointing out human futility in such actions... the human condidtion is sad, if anything at all
There isn't really a solid edge we know of. Einstein postulated that the Universe could be "unbounded yet finite" - think of an ant on the surface of a balloon. The surface of the balloon has no hard bounds yet it's most certainly finite. If the ant continued walking in any one direction long enough it'd eventually end up back where it started. I don't believe any scientist estimates the mass of the Universe to be infinite. The current thinking is that the Universe is pretty much finite and that there's a finite amount of mass in it. Additionally, the whole Universe is not expanding at the speed of light. It's a little difficult to wrap one's head around, but everything is expanding away from everything else at a rate determined by their distance. At around 14 billion light-years away from here things are receding away from us faster than the speed of light, but things that are relatively close by, say Proxima Centauri, aren't receding terribly fast.
Balloons again. Imagine galaxies drawn on the surface of a balloon - as the balloon inflates they all get further from each other.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk&feature=fvst]YouTube - Galaxy Song[/ame] As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know Twelve million miles a minute and thats the fastest speed there is.
if something were to get to the speed of light then in theory it would have infinate mass. so just the opposite.
Well information between 2 entangled quantam particles travels faster than the speed of light. Got ya Einstein Back to the topic at hand, Since this universal expansion is accelerating as we know, won't as things get farther and farther away the mean temperature of the universe be at or close to absolute 0? And If it were at absolute zero since there is no movement theoretically, would the "motor" behind this expansian known as dark energy be stopped? Just some questions
Yes, since the amount of stuff in the Universe is fixed as the Universe expands the overall energy density will decrease. It will asymptotically (and not just because I love that word ) approach absolute zero. I don't know if it would actually reach absolute zero; I'm not a physicist but IIRC you can't actually achieve absolute zero. It might have something to do with vacuum energy.
well einsteins theory is mass= rest mass/ SQRT(1-v2/c2) so say a 1kg ball going the speed of light mass = 1/SQRT(1-3X18^8/3X10^8) mass = 1/SQRT(1-1) mass = 1/0 and seing as you cannot divide by zero, that is why you cant travel faster than the speed of light to summarise, the faster you travel the more mass you have, and at the speed of light you have infinate mass and it is impossible to surpass that velocity