No, I didn't win the lottery. It's simply that you can stop worrying: the universe isn't ending. In fact, I don't see any end. This would be a big disappointment to physicists who want to know if the universe is cyclic or steady-state. All I can tell them is No. If you insist on there being more than one universe (which I have to admit is one thing we currently have to take on faith), then consider an alternative.
One view we could take is that universes are constantly being born, like grapes on a vine. They come into being, grow, and (supposedly) die. As I've said, I theorize that our universe's load of galaxies exist on the skin of a balloon that is still inflating. Since the balloon is non-material, I don't see any need for a size limit. And would we know it if we hit the limit? Perhaps. I think the sign would be if the most distant galaxies suddenly stopped receding at faster than the speed of light. They might even stop receding at all. That hasn't happened yet. I know that some people have prophesized that our universe will eventually run out of matter to be converted to energy and there will be no more new stars. Since we currently have no handle on things like white holes, black holes, and dark matter, I just can't see any way to formulate an answer to that.
But...
I'm losing sleep again.
Darn tv keeps running programs that remind me of something I'd rather not deal with, because I don't have an answer yet. But I sure do have an unanswer!
What about gravity?
What about gravity???
Yes, it's doing all kinds of things, like sticking our butts to our chairs and holding the universe together. However, if you approach a physicist and ask him what gravity is, I'm betting you get a neatly formatted little talk about what it does and how it keeps everything together, blah... blah... blah... This is mostly because nobody has yet explained what gravity is. Hell, we can't even detect gravity! It's true and don't let them try to talk their way around it. They can't even show you a gravity detector of any kind. You can dare any one of them to show you one. You might win a free drink...
This bothers me. That's because I'm right in there with them. We can detect electricity, magnetism, and something we like to call electromagnetism. But not gravity.
So, we are really stuck. Things are as clear as the atmosphere of Jupiter. We can demonstrate electricity, I'm fairly sure. That fat spark between terminals of opposite polarities is pretty convincing. But what, then, is the big difference between electricity and magnetism? Magnetism has polarity. Oh, yes, nobody has yet shown magnetic sparks. Hmm. And the electromagnetic spectrum? Uh, does that mean we can 'tune in' different frequencies of magnetism?
I don't even want to get involved with gravity, at this point. I can certainly understand why physicists don't spend time worrying about gravity. Frankly it gives me a headache, and I've had enough of those as I dealt with the flu this winter. I will keep trying to figure out where gravity comes from and how we can get a better hold on it, but this is not going to be an overnight fix.
There is something hinky about the business where two objects of different masses are attracted at the same rate by gravity. I know that it has been demonstrated, but if their explanation of gravity is right, it shouldn't work that way. So somebody has been playing fast and loose and hoping we don't look too closely at where the coin goes when they wave the cloth.
Like I said, I'll keep working at it.
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