An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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→ accelerating Universe.

→ accelerating; → expansion; → Universe.

The deduction based on the observation that the most distant → Type Ia supernovae are fainter than that expected from their → redshifts in a matter-only dominated expanding Universe. The faintness is attributed to larger distances resulting from an accelerating Universe driven by presence of a new component with strongly negative pressure. This component that makes the Universe accelerate is named → dark energy. The deceleration or acceleration of an expanding Universe, given by the general relativistic equation, is: R^../R = -(4/3)πGρ(1 + 3w), where R is the linear → cosmic scale factor of the expanding Universe, G the → gravitational constant, ρ the mean density of the Universe, and w the → equation of state parameter representing dark energy. The expansion accelerates whenever w is more negative than -1/3. The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was awarded to the initiators of this concept, Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, and Adam G. Riess, for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae. See also the original paper: Perlmutter et al. 1999, ApJ 517, 565.

→ accelerating; → universe.

The time elapsed since the → Big Bang.

→ age; → universe.

A → cosmological model, first formulated by Friedmann and Lemaître, in which the Universe has a → finite size and lifetime and → space has a → positive → curvature, e.g. a Universe with a density greater than the → critical density. See also → closed space.

→ closed; → Universe.

A Universe whose density is just less than or equal to the critical value and expands forever with no change in the expansion rate.

Coasting, verbal adjective from → coast; → Universe.

A solution to → Einstein's field equations of → general relativity which contains no ordinary matter (Ω_M = 0) or radiation (Ω_R = 0), is → Euclidean (k = 0), but has a → cosmological constant (Ω_Λ > 0). The Universe expands exponentially forever. This solution was the first model expanding of → expanding Universe. See also → empty Universe, → Milne Universe.

After the Dutch mathematician and physicist Willem de Sitter (1872-1934) who worked out the model in 1917; → universe.

A qualitative term used to describe a phase in the history of the Universe, from the → Big Bang event to the apparition of the first structures (seeds of future galaxies), at a → redshift around 30.

→ early; → universe.

A theoretical model in which the → cosmological constant plays a crucial role by allowing an initial phase that is identical to the Einstein static Universe. After an arbitrarily long time, the Universe begins to expand. The difficulty with this model is that the initiation of galaxy formation may actually cause a collapse rather than initiate an → expansion of the Universe.

→ Eddington limit; Lemaître in honor of Georges-Henri Lemaître (1894-1966), a Belgian Roman Catholic priest, who first proposed the Big Bang theory; → universe.

A cosmological model in which a static (neither expanding nor collapsing) Universe is maintained by introducing a cosmological repulsion force (in the form of the cosmological constant) to counterbalance the gravitational force.

→ Einstein; → static; arr; universe.

The → Friedmann-Lemaitre model of → expanding Universe that only contains matter and in which space is → Euclidean (Ω_M > 0, Ω_R = 0, Ω_Λ = 0, k = 0). The Universe will expand at a decreasing rate for ever.

→ Einstein; de Sitter, after the Dutch mathematician and physicist Willem de Sitter (1872-1934) who worked out the model in 1917; → Universe.

A cosmological model in which the → Big Bang is not the beginning of the → Universe, but a transitory phase in a more global scenario. The ekpyrotic Universe model is fundamentally different from the → standard cosmology and offers radically different explanations for the cosmological problems (→ homogeneity, → isotropy, → flatness, → magnetic monopoles, etc.). In this highly speculative model → space-time has five dimensions, four spatial and one temporal. Two three-dimensional → branes, one visible and one hidden, collide following the contraction of the extra dimension. The contraction produces a blue shift effect that converts gravitational energy into brane kinetic energy. Some fraction of this kinetic energy is converted into matter and radiation that can fuel the Big Bang. The resulting temperature is finite, so the hot Big Bang phase begins without a → singularity. Apart from being speculative, this model suffers from several fine tunings (J. Khoury et al. 2001, Phys. Rev. D64, 123522 (hep-th/0103239); P. J. Steinhardt & N. Turok, 2002, Phys. Rev. D65, 126003 (hep-th/0111098), and references therein).

Ekpyrotic is inspired by the ancient Stoic doctrine according to which the world ends in a supreme conflagration, called ekpyrosis, and then reborns from the fire (palingenesis), only to be destroyed again at the end of the new cycle; ekpyrosis, from Gk. ek- "out of," → ex-, + → pyro- combining form of pyr, → fire, + -sis a suffix used to form nouns of action, process, state, condition, such as thesis, analysis, catharsis; → Universe.

Giti, → Universe; âtašzâd, literally "born out of fire," from âtaš, → fire, + zâd "born," from zâdan "to bring forth," → generate.

A → cosmological model based on → Einstein's field equations in which the → Universe is devoid of → matter and → radiation. There are two types of empty Universes: the → de Sitter Universe and the → Milne Universe.

→ empty; → Universe.

Same as → accelerating Universe.

→ expand; → Universe.

The deduction based on the observational fact that the greater the → distance to a → galaxy, the greater the → redshift in its → spectral lines (→ Doppler effect). The observations strongly indicate that galaxies appear to be moving away from us with speeds proportional to their distance. This is in agreement with the overall → expansion of the → Universe.

→ expand; → -ing; → Universe.

The receding of galaxies from one another at a speed proportional to their separation, as inferred by Edwin Hubble from the observed Doppler shift of distant galaxies. → Hubble constant describes the local rate of the expansion.

→ expansion; → universe.

A Universe where the → geometry is → Euclidean, i.e. parallel lines remain parallel when extended into the distance and the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is 180°. The → space-time in a flat Universe has a null → curvature constant, k = 0. See also → closed Universe, → open Universe.

→ flat; → universe.

One of the first → cosmological models to incorporate Einstein's → general relativity, predicting that → galaxies should be → receding from each other due to → cosmic expansion.

→ Friedmann equation; Georges Edouard Lemaître (1894-1966), a Belgian cosmologist and priest who proposed a first sketch of the → Big Bang theory; → universe.

Assuming that the Universe is a thermodynamically → isolated system, a state of absolute uniformity in the Universe in which all temperature differences would reduce to zero and no energy will be available for use, according to the → second law of thermodynamics. In that condition of maximum → entropy, the Universe would be in a state of unchanging death. First introduced by the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) in 1854, on the basis of William Thomson's (1824-1907) idea.

→ heat; → death; → Universe.

A model Universe which is homogeneous and → isotropic on large scales. It is modeled by a → Robertson-Walker cosmology. A homogeneous Universe is filled with a constant density and negligible pressure. Any small spatial region is characteristic for the whole Universe.

→ homogeneous; → Universe.

The hypothesis first put forward by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) according to which the objects termed "spiral nebulae" were stellar systems comparable to our own → Milky Way galaxy. At the end of the 18th century, William Herschel (1738-1822) using his giant reflectors discovered thousands of such nebulae. However, in spite of advances in observations it was never possible to prove Kant's idea until the second decade of the twentieth century. The observations using the Mount Wilson 2.50m (100 inch) telescope allowed Edwin Hubble in 1924 to firmly establish that the "spiral nebulae" were unquestionably extragalactic.

The term "island Universe" was first introduced by the German Alexander von Humboldt in 1850; → island; → Universe.