General astronomy discussion

Re: Big Rip

datachipjeff — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:07:14 GMT

Cool i understand what you mean. I was takin it more literal.

I cant really see the danger involved in this. I just couldnt comprehend how something startin as a singularity could rip as it is the only thing there. How could something rip into nothing.

But thats fine thanks for the reply

Re: Big Rip

DaveMitsky — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:34:45 GMT

I believe that you may be taking the word rip too literally. Dissociation or disintegration may be more apropos. According to this hypothesis, the ever increasing accleration due to "phantom energy" (dark energy with the equation of state $w < - 1$ ) will overwhelm gravity completely so that there will no longer be structures such as galaxies, stars, and planets. Eventually even the nuclear forces that bind subatomic particles into atoms will be overcome and matter will cease to exist.

Dave Mitsky

Big Rip

Under the weather — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:39:15 GMT

I just wanted to clarify something in regards to the theory of the big rip. The theory states that the cosmos would be torn apart literaly by the expansion of the universe. What i cant understand is how this would happen.

I think of this like a piece of paper being torn, we know that there would be a hole in the middle of the paper. But if space itself torn, i can's see how there could be space next to nothingness. If you could see into this 'hole or rip' what would be seen, nothingness?