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Old September 17th 08, 03:51 PM posted to uk.sci.astronomy
Brett...
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Default The expanding universe (I'm getting taller and wider)

Mike Williams wrote:
Wasn't it Brett... who wrote:
From http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia...ExpandUni.html

"galaxies are not moving away through space, they are moving away with
space, as space itself expands."

So does this mean that the all matter is moving away from other
matter?
In other words, if galaxies are getting further apart from each other
then does that not mean that the molecules in your body are also
getting further apart from each other?


Objects that are gravitationally bound together, like the galaxies in
a supercluster, or the stars in a galaxy, are currently believed to
not get any further apart as the universe expands. The "metric"
expansion of space only makes superclusters recede from one another.


But the force of gravity acts upon all matter doesn't it?
ie galaxies exert a force upon one another though with those distances it is
going to be very weak I guess.


However, we don't yet know whether fundamental physical "constants"
like the Fine Structure Constant or the mass of the electron are
really constant. If those constants change over time, then the sizes
of the atoms in your body will also change over time.


I clearly need to read up on that bit!