EXPANDING UNIVERSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 117, 20 May 1932, Page 9

EXPANDING UNIVERSE

POSSIBILITIES OF FUTURE. SCIENTIST AND HIS THEORIES. LONIDON, May 9. A picture of the universe tottering to headlong ruin, and so unstable that the slightest disturbance might upset its equilibrium was presented at Manchester University to-day by the eminent mathematician Sir James Jeans. He was careful to point out, however, that he was calculating the disturbance periods in thousands of millions of years. An accidental condensation of chaotic gases into nebulae countless ages ago caused the universe to begin expanding, according to Sir James’ new theory. He likened the universe to a stick which had been balanced on its point and was falling over at a constantly increasing speed, but it had been discovered that its equilibrium was so unstable that the slightest impulse would be sufficient to upset its balance. Consideration of gas into nebulae could have provided the ini tial impulse which made the universe unstable. As evidence of this instability, Sir Janies mentioned that all nebulae were receding at terrific speeds and the uni verse was doubling itself every 1,300,000,000 years. It might be thousands of millions of years since a slight disturbance upset the universe’s equilibrium, and an infinitesimal amount of disturbance would require a whole eternity of time to produce an appreciable motion of expansion. The trembling universe must have been balanced with almost unthinkable precision.