Abstract

The cosmic triangle is introduced as a way of representing the past, present, and future status of the universe. Our current location within the cosmic triangle is determined by the answers to three questions: How much matter is in the universe? Is the expansion rate slowing down or speeding up? And, is the universe flat? A review of recent observations suggests a universe that is lightweight (matter density about one-third the critical value), is accelerating, and is flat. The acceleration implies the existence of cosmic dark energy that overcomes the gravitational self-attraction of matter and causes the expansion to speed up.

Keywords

PhysicsCOSMIC cancer databaseUniverseMetric expansion of spaceDark energyPhantom energyBig RipGravitationAstronomyAstrophysicsAccelerationZero-energy universeTheoretical physicsCosmologyClassical mechanics

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Publication Info

Year
1999
Type
article
Volume
284
Issue
5419
Pages
1481-1488
Citations
1083
Access
Closed

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Neta A. Bahcall, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, S. Perlmutter et al. (1999). The Cosmic Triangle: Revealing the State of the Universe. Science , 284 (5419) , 1481-1488. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.284.5419.1481

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/science.284.5419.1481