Page 22 - A Chain of Miracles

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A MIRACLE IN THE UNIVERSE’S EXPANSION RATE
The universe’s expansion is critical to the formation of its
present state. Had it been a fraction slower, the whole of the uni-
verse would have contracted once again and collapsed on itself,
before the fledgling solar systems had any chance to develop.
Had its rate of expansion been only a fraction faster, matter

would have been dispersed irretrievably in the vastness of
space, unable to form neither stars nor galaxies.
Either situation would mean that living things, let alone we
humans, could not exist.

However, neither scenario happened. Thanks to the actual
rate of expansion, the universe as we know it emerged. But how
sensitive is this rate, actually?
Paul Davies, a renowned Professor of Mathematics and

Physics at Australia’s Adelaide University, made a series of cal-
culations in order to answer this question. The results he ob-

The universe we live in
emerged some 15 billion
years ago, as the result of
a giant explosion from a
single point. The result of
this huge explosion,
which contained all the
matter in the universe,
was the present, extraor-
dinarily regular cosmos
that expanded to assume
its present form.

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