Word: expansionism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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However, the cosmological constant is only one way in which scientists are explaining the accelerating expansion of the universe.
"We've known since 1929 that the universe is expanding," Kirshner says. "But we've also known there's gravity. And the question is, `How does gravity affect the cosmic expansion?'"
Until now, scientists believed that the force of gravity would eventually slow this expansion. But the recent evidence suggests that Einstein's original cosmological constant--although inserted into his equations for the wrong reasons--might represent a real force present in the universe.
As the force represented by the cosmological constant pushes the edges of the universe farther apart, the gravitational attraction with the potential to bring the expansion to a standstill grows weaker, Kirshner says.
Now that expansion is happening, what does it do? The first issue it raises is credibility. Advocates of NATO expansion agree that the Central and East European states face no military threat; so to them, the whole thing looks risk-free. But if in a few years Poland gets into...