re: Hubble telescope captures image of 2 galaxies colliding

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There are a couple different interpretations, the "Big Split" where dispersion as such small scales eventually rips apart the fabric of space-time and "the Big Freeze" where shite gets spread apart and becomes a cold dead universe.

These theories are pretty spotty even in comparison to other theories in physics / astronomy. People just don't have much of a clue about what is going on with Dark Energy / Dark Matter so its hard to trust that kind of extrapolation at this point IMO.

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Well, the knowledge that the Universe is expanding at an exponential rate was only learned in 1998. There are some competing thoughts about the implications of this knowledge, yes, but the important takeaway is that it nullifies many previous assumptions such as the Big Crunch or the Big Bounce ideas of a recycling Universe.

It seems to validate Alan Guth's Inflation Theory and its prediction of a Multiverse with our Universe being one of an infinite number of "pocket universes" that result from "eternal inflation." Its heady stuff to be sure but the greatest physicist minds are hard at work trying to find ways for us to test at least some of the wild and strange implications of this new knowledge.