What will happen to the universe?

[Lancer]

Is it eternal or will it expand so much that it consumes its energy and dies out?

Also, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, was the gravitational pull significantly less? All this time space dust and the occasional rock (incl the one that did the dinosaurs) have been coming down and increasing the mass of this planet, and therefore its gravity, yes? Is that why critters today aren't as big as the biggest dinosaurs?

[Vesayen]

Expansion of the universe does not deplete energy. All matter decays into backround radiation however, so whether the universe is expanding or not(and it almost definatley is), it will use up all its energy anyway.

The earth has not changed significantly in mass in the last 65 million years.

[Lancer]

So creatures will someday be as large as the biggest dinosaurs?

[Lorizael]

What will happen is that my cult will come to dominate humanity, which will then spread across space and time and change into something more useful than humans, at which point it will begin the process of unifying existence into a singular omniscient entity that will comprise everything in the universe and will be able to see outisde of it to the origin and purpose of existence, of course.

[KrazyHorse]

Also, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, was the gravitational pull significantly less?

No.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Vesayen
Expansion of the universe does not deplete energy.

Depending on the form of the energy, yes it does. Radiation energy density drops as the fourth power of the scale factor, implying that the total "energy" in radiation (actually, a bit of a meaningless concept in GR) goes down. Cold matter energy density scales as a^-3, implying a constant total "energy" in this form, and dark energy scales as something like a constant, implying that the total energy of the universe in this form increases with expansion

[Q Classic]

Since you are all figments of my imagination, the instant I die you will all cease to exist.

There is no universe outside of me.

I AM THE STATE!

[RGBVideo]

All this time space dust and the occasional rock (incl the one that did the dinosaurs) have been coming down and increasing the mass of this planet, and therefore its gravity, yes? Is that why critters today aren't as big as the biggest dinosaurs?

What you don't know could fill several books. No wonder you vote republican.

[Spiffor]

Re: What will happen to the universe?

God will destroy it after the construction of the nthTemple in jerusalem (or its destruction, I forgot)

[RGBVideo]

Regarding the actual topic of the thread: The big debate in cosmology in the earlier part of the 20th century was whether the universe was constant or whether it was expanding. Probably the most well known fan of the former theory was Fred Hoyle, who satirically called the latter theory as the "Big Bang"-explanation in a media interview. Eventually, the latter POV won the acceptance of most researchers. It was finally proven in mid-1960s with the discovery of the so-called cosmic background radiation.

Now for the interesting question: is the universe expanding endlessly or will it eventually stop expanding and start contracting, thus ending with a "big crunch"?

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Lancer
So creatures will someday be as large as the biggest dinosaurs?

Lancer, you have shown a greater understanding of both biology and physics in the past. Why are you asking such stupid questions that you know the answer to?

[Lancer]

Erm, am I supposed to know that creatures will be as big as dinosaurs again or that they won't be?

[RGBVideo]

I don't know that either. I presume it was sarcasm.

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Lancer
Erm, am I supposed to know that creatures will be as big as dinosaurs again or that they won't be?

I assumed you knew the most basic information about evolution. I guess not.

I dug this up, just for you.

People who don't know how evolution work are only marginally more educated then the functionally retarded in our society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution

[RGBVideo]

hiding behind red herrings

you didn't answer the question, Ves