Abstract
THE theory of the expanding universe, which has lately attracted so much attention, formed the principal topic of Sir James Jeans's remarks in the Henry Sidgwick memorial lecture for 1932, which was given at Newnham College, Cambridge, on November 26, under the title “The Furthest Depths of Space”. In a brief survey, Sir James introduced his listeners to the universe as we know it today, beginning with the naked-eye stars, then passing to the Milky Way system and from there to the extra-galactic nebulae. These, in themselves objects of great importance, acquire additional interest as straws floating in the stream of space, showing how its currents are flowing. This space is curved, with a texture varying from the local irregularities which cause the electron to twist about in an electric or magnetic field, or the planets to move in curved orbits around the sun, to a bigger, coarser texture which makes space curve round on itself and finally close up. The state of curvature is not quite that of a. universe in equilibrium as first conceived by Einstein, for later investigators, Friedmann, Lemaitre and others have shown that such an equilibrium would be unstable. Space would immediately commence expanding or contracting with ever-increasing speed. We do not know what was the initial impulse which began the expansion. It may have been the starting of condensation in the primeval gas of which the universe is generally supposed to have consisted, but the suggestion, Sir James thinks, has not yet been strictly proved.
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The Furthest Depths of Space. Nature 130, 839 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130839a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130839a0