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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 2755652" data-attributes="member: 5435">Well, proofs aren't entirely out of reach.  But at this point they're more likely to come from high-energy physics experiments like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN than from astrophysics.  One of the reasons we study astrophysics is that the various celestial bodies reach much higher energies than what we can produce on earth, and so have the potential to teach us a lot about the fundamental nature of matter and energy.  At this point, however, we're talking about identifying the mechanism that creates vacuum energy, or discovering new particles and detecting them on an individual basis.  That's what's needed to start proving or disproving some of the theories about the ultimate fate of the universe.As for the Big Rip...was that from the Exit Mundi website?  This isn't something standard cosmology predicts either; bound systems from galaxies to atoms don't get expanded along with space, and if the acceleration is due to a non-zero vacuum energy then its effects will only be felt in the vast reaches of vacuum--it will still be insignificant in any region where matter is of higher density.  The whole point of vacuum energy is that its energy density is constant throughout space.For bound systems to get ripped apart, you'd have to have the vacuum energy density evolving with time, probably along with other fundamental constants.  In that case, yes it could happen.  The time scale would be tens of billions of years at the very least--change in the fundamental constants is still controversial, which means that it's barely detectable over 13 billion years or so (the age of the universe).  For the constants to drift enough to alter structures will therefore probably take at least another 13 Gy.  We won't know though until we see a strong positive detection of evolution and can estimate the rate of change.Ben</blockquote>

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