130
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by aCosmicWave@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Is it at all possible that instead of being pushed away, we are instead getting pulled toward something huuuuuge via gravity? As if we are falling into something way greater than ourselves? I thought this was a wild idea but after I Googled it I found out that there is such a thing as a “Great Attractor”. Something 150 million light-years away is literally pulling all nearby galaxies towards it but no one knows exactly what it is.

So how do we know there aren’t any other Great Attractors, Greater Attractors, ad infinitum?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] obinice@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

So I'm getting bigger? How much per year?

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. Local attractive forces, like gravity, especially those at the atomic level, overpower the expansion for tightly coupled systems. So the earth isn't expanding, and neither are the people on it. I don't recall exactly what scale it kicks in at, but there is a good chance it's not even affecting the distance between planets in a system. Most likely it only plays a role in inter-planetary-systems and larger. Ie, stars get further apart from each other.

Edit. This explains it better https://www.astronomy.com/science/does-the-space-inside-an-atom-expand-with-the-universe/

That says that the expansion really only applies to the space between galaxies. In anything smaller than that, gravity still overpowers the expensive forces. Making it far weaker than I initially thought.

[-] qjkxbmwvz@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 1 year ago

It's at a much, much larger scale** than that


our local group is collapsing in on itself, and it's ~10M lightyears in diameter.

** talking about length scales only makes sense in reference to the specifics


two bananas separated by 10M lightyears, with no other matter nearby, would (I'm guessing) be expanded away, but a cluster of galaxies will not.

[-] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Using a banana for scale really made this so much better. :)

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, finally I can imagine the vastness of space. Thank you, bananas!

[-] RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

I don't know about you but I definitely am. Not sure the big bang is too blame, but I like that excuse.

[-] spauldo@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

The forces that hold your body together are many, many orders of magnitude stronger than the acceleration due to the expansion of space.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

Check your waistline to find out.

this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
130 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43893 readers
736 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS