Max_dyre

Thanks, that settles the matter. I can fold my theory up and toss it in the trash now.

I should have left going down black holes out of this. LOL Anyway, nuclear fusion in stars converts some matter into energy. (In our sun, we loose about 5 million tons per sec in the conversion of mass to energy) Energy has no mass. The mass that was converted to energy can no longer contribute to deforming the space-time continuum. Consequently, I think, space-time flattens as less mass is available to deform it, contributing to the expansion of the universe. My sheet and bowling ball analogy best describes this..at least to me. Here it is again..modified. To illustrate the thought: take a bed sheet, 4 people and a very heavy bowling ball. Put the bowling ball in the middle of the bed sheet, then have the 4 people pull from the 4 corners, the sheet would not be flat as the bowling balls weight would pull the corners close together. Someone walks by and takes the bowling ball away (ok...how about the bowling ball getting lighter and lighter due to it radiating energy from nuclear fusion which is converting mass to energy), the bed sheet flattens out and the result is the 4 corners are farther away from each other. Expansion.

The question, where does the stuff go, I'm guessing of a couple things: 1. Maybe down black holes? 2. Maybe the loss of mass in nuclear fusion reactions? I'm thinking as the universe looses mass the universe expands. The thought is that given that mass deforms space-time, if mass is "magically" removed from the universe, space-time gets flat. As space-time flattens out, it expands. To illustrate the thought: take a bed sheet, 4 people and a very heavy bowling ball. Put the bowling ball in the middle of the bed sheet, then have the 4 people pull from the 4 corners, the sheet would not be flat as the bowling balls weight would pull the corners close together. Someone walks by and takes the bowling ball away, the bed sheet flattens out and the result is the 4 corners are farther away from each other. Expansion. Also, to an earlier reply, I was not saying that mass leaves the universe due to expansion. I'm saying mass leaving the universe (or mass being converted to energy) would cause expansion of the space-time continuum because the mass is not there to deform it anymore.

Could the observation that the universe is very rapidly expanding be due to the space-time continuum flattening out from mass leaving our universe. i.e. disappearing? My thought is that since gravity bends space-time and in essence, wrinkles it, that a loss of mass in the universe might allow the space-time to "unwrinkle" and cause expansion. If a great deal of mass goes out of existence then wouldn't there be a corresponding "unwrinkling" of space-time? Of course the mass has got to go somewhere. Perhaps it leaks to another universe? Maybe we have a big leak or billions of small leaks such as mass going down black holes?