Is the universe still expanding? Certainly - the hubble constant which describes the rate of expansion can be measured quite well. WMAP puts it at 71±4 (km/s)/Mpc. (About 73 parts extra in a trillion per year). Is it slowing down? No. From several different kinds of measurement we're now confident the expansion is speeding up. No one knows why. The simplest theory says it should not be speeding up, and when you try to factor in quantum mechanics, it is difficult to explain why the expansion is as slow as it is. These are some of the great unanswered questions in cosmology today.

The Universe can't either expand nor shrink; namely, for something to either expand and/or shrink it must start off with a predetermined (original) size; the Universe has no predetermined size, as it never starts and it never ends.

Yes, indefinitely...

I guess until God gets bored and finds something else to play with.

The Universe encompasses all space and is expanding by creating more space within it. I don't know if it will collapse again, no one does, the best scientists the world has are still arguing about it. It depends on the presence of dark matter and dark energy in the universe and how much of it, these are currently only theoretical substances but may come to matter a great deal in the debate. So the answer is that it might carry on or might collapse, it certainly is not constant.

Our human understanding of the universe is expanding. Science keeps finding more distant objects. Our universe is a dimension. One of many dimensions.

It is expanding at the moment, but scientists are unsure if it will continue unabated or eventually slow to a stop and then collapse on itself again.

http://www.sciamdigital.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.ViewIssue&ISSUEID_CHAR=3EB434BE-2B35-221B-6E4E212BD1E980F4 . Imagine a world in which spacetime is a fluid, the constants of nature change with time, and our universe is but one of a virtually infinite number of universes. Bizarre? Yes. Impossible? Not at all. Indeed, such scenarios reflect the current thinking of some of today's foremost physicists. And they are just some of the cutting edge ideas that leading authorities explore in this, our second exclusive online issue on extreme physics.

The most recent studies have shown that, yes, the universe is expanding, and furthermore, that it is accelerating in its expansion, meaning, it will never stop expanding.

Maybe the Universe is Infinity. What is infinity? Does infinity have any physical parameters? ================.. The concept of infinite/ eternal means nothing to a scientists. They do not understand how they could draw any real, concrete conclusions from this characteristic. A notions of "more", "less", "equally, "similar" could not be conformed to a word infinity or eternity. The Infinity/Eternity is something, that has no borders, has no discontinuity; it could not be compared to anything. Considering so, scientists came to conclusion that the infinity/eternity defies to a physical and mathematical definition and cannot be considered in real processes. Therefore they have proclaimed the strict requirement (on a level of censor of the law): « If we want that the theory would be correct, the infinity/eternity should be eliminated ». Thus they direct all their mathematical abilities, all intellectual energy to the elimination of infinity. Is this way correct? =========.. Does infinity have any physical parameters? The Universe is Infinite Vacuum in the state of T=0K, at first of everything. Why? Because it is visual fact. The Universe as whole is Kingdom of Coldness. Now the physicists think that this Kingdom of Coldness in a state of T=2,7K ( after big bang). But this state is limited and temporary. Why can it be limited and temporary ? Because in the Universe astronomers found enormous spaces without any material mass or energy it means these spaces in state T=0K. Only mass and energy can warm up the Kingdom of Coldness. But the detected material mass of the matter in the Universe is so small (the average density of all substance in the Universe is approximately p=10^-30 g/sm^3) that it cannot “ close “ the Universe and therefore the Universe is “ open”, endless and this small mass can warm up the Kingdom of Coldness only in it some limited and local points. Therefore astrophysicists search for “ dark matter” because it will save the “ law of gravitation “ as a first law of the Universe and it will warm up the Kingdom of Coldness. # The cosmological constant of Universe is zero or near to it. This physical quantity cannot “ close” the Universe therefore the Universe is endless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant ==============.. P.S. If somebody belief in “ big bang”, he must take in calculation that T=2,7K expands and therefore T=2,7K is temporary parameter and with time it will go to T=0K. =================… Questions from this article: http://www.physorg.com/news141317146.html 1. what happened BEFORE the big bang, 2. whether there was a "before." 3. what may have happened in a "pre-big bang." 4. "What banged? Where did it come from?" 5. "Is ours the only universe? If so, how did it come to exist?" 6. What are : “the big bounce," "the multiverse," "the cyclic theory," "parallel worlds," even "soap bubbles."……… 7. What is: "Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang." 8. …… particle smasher might discover extra dimensions … What are the extra dimensions: 4-D...etc ? 9. “ shadow”…… travel between parallel universes ………..( !!! ) and cast a "shadow" that scientists might be able to detect. …….. The shadow might take……. / one more scientific fairy - tale / 10. Last August, ground and satellite observations revealed what appeared to be an enormous "hole in the universe," a mostly empty region of the sky, 900 million light-years wide - about 5 billion trillion miles -………… Where are the gravitational waves here ? 11. At a Vatican conference in 1951, Pope Pius XII said the big bang was consistent with church doctrine. "Creation took place in time, therefore there is a creator, therefore God exists!" the pope declared. I changed some quotations. The theological explanation of the world's existence cannot lie at a different level from scientific understanding. The Materialistic world gets its finite being from an infinite being. (T=0K ) The universe that cycles endlessly through creation and destruction... {between the Vacuum and Materialistic world.) =========================.. Many questions and the answer is one: T=0K. !!! ==============================… Best wishes. Israel Sadovnik. / Socratus. http://www.socratus.com http://www.wbabin.net http://www.wbabin.net/comments/sadovnik.htm http://www.wbabin.net/physics/sadovnik.pdf

I think the concept of the universe expanding is flawed. Even though there is "proof" I believe it is our knowledge of the universe that is expanding, and hopefully continues to . So in effect, we learn more, and see more, and all of a sudden, this place is bigger. We detect movement, and call it growth, we discover new things, and call them new. To answer your question, it will continue to grow as long as we hunger for knowledge. Great question!!!

Yes, and to current measurements, the expansion will continue forever. There is no major scientific argument over this fact anymore after the results from the COBE and WMAP satellites. In addition (commenting on a previous answer), there is little argument on the existence of dark matter and dark energy, the devil is in the detail: "it's there, but what is it?" The universe was once an infinitessimally small point when it was created. This was the Big Bang. As the universe expanded, it cooled, until eventually matter could condense and form stars, planets, etc. The current temperature of the universe is about 3 degrees Kelvin. Sure enough, if you look in any direction you will see the universe is about this temperature and that (at large distances) things are moving away from us... we occupy no special place in space: if every point in the universe is travelling away from every other point in the universe, then the natural observation is that the universe is expanding.

It's expanding, and as far as I know, the rate of its expansion is accelerating

probably till it collides with a parallell universe which will annihalate everything !

It should be done next Thursday, Friday at the latest.

We do not know if it is expanding. We can only see as far as light has had time to travel here since the beginning. . As time goes by we can see more and more of the universe.

yes the Universe is expanding, but i think that there will be a day when it will start shrinking because of gravitation. Just my thinking!