Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: alexbalex on 20/07/2013 22:30:20

Title: Is there is a link between the expansion of space and gravity?
Post by: alexbalex on 20/07/2013 22:30:20

Hi,

I wish to share my pet idea about the Universe and hear some competent opinions, possibly telling where I have gone wrong. Basically, in my struggle to comprehend the incredibly complicated theories about the Universe  and Reality without having mathematical skills, I inevitably end up visualising the picture. It can be pretty confusing as there are legitimate theories that are giving totally different explanations. Therefore, I took the liberty to try it  myself.

I am starting from the observed fact that the Universe is expanding due to the expansion of space itself. It is said that space distance between galaxies and other matter is increasing, but when the matter is gravitationally bound together the space between particles and objects is not getting bigger and not causing them to inflate or fall apart (or at least not in the same rate as the empty space). My idea is: What if there is a link between the expansion of space and gravity?

Imagine that you are crossing a river. Your body is opposing the flow of the water by a force and that is causing ripples in the river. Now imagine that the flow is in every direction and the ripples are everywhere around you. The same way matter may be opposing the expansion of space, causing the fabric of space-time to distort and create gravitational effect. Probably some properties of matter are prohibiting the expansion of space where matter is present, thus acting as breaks causing the distortion. Maybe all that are causing gravity are like little knots of expansion breaking distortion of space-time. When they clump together in bigger objects the combined distortion is resulting in bigger gravitational effects. Bigger masses like galaxies, dust clouds and clusters are regions dominated by gravity so expansion is not felt locally, because it has been restrained.

We can make some speculations using this scenario. For example, probably the inflation period right after the Big Bang was rapidly expanding space before early matter reached the phase that is causing distortion of space-time (gravity), and put breaks on the expansion to the observed rates. We can also assume that with the expansion of the Universe the matter is getting diluted so gravitational breaks per amount of space are getting weaker, which can explain the acceleration in the  rate of the Universe's expansion. That means that in the beginning the expansion of the Universe (starting right after the inflation) was much slower, due to much denser matter distribution.  If we have shrinking space, the effect would be opposite , so we will have repulsive gravity.

I would not go for more speculations, because I am way out of my depth. I am curious to see what the more knowledgable people can say about it.

Thanks