by emailking » Thu 21 Sep 2006, 00:14:30
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NEOPO', 'Y')es and that bothered me slightly.
I must go read up on this.
How many times if any have we inflated before and should we be concerned?
We believe everything is
nearly flat - now they say we believe we are inflating again....
Dont tell me something is occurring now that has not occured since directly after time and space were created cause I cant deal with that!!!

Is it hot in here? ....I am finding it very hard to breathe and now must end this conversation...thank you...

Worry not. The expansion only has an effect on the level of clusters of galaxies. Something like the solar system won't expand because gravity overwhlems the expansion. And you're certainly not going to explode because the adhesive forces waaaaayyy outwheigh the expansion.
Here'swhat we believe has happened via inflation:
first insanely small fraction of second: no inflation, normal expansion
another insanely small fraction of a second: wicked inflation. local universe goes from something like the size of an atom to the size of a grape fruit. (This is the crucial step that makes the universe so flat looking now.)
next 7-10 billion years: no inflation. normal expansion, slowed by gravity
last 3-6 billion years: inflation. Nowhere near as strong as the first inflationary period, but very measurable...again, on the level of superclusters of galxies, looking billions of years into the past with our telescopes.
The lengths of those periods are known much better but not by me off the top of my head. So I estimated based on memory.