The observations in this article are of stars and galaxies billions of light-years away and billions of years old. Has anyone ever thought about what the universe out there looks like today?

Earl Rosenwinkel
Duluth, Minn.

People have thought about what the universe looks like now and what it will look like in the distant future, if some ideas about dark energy are correct. Some astronomers predict that the universe will be ripped apart because the repulsive force associated with dark energy is getting stronger and stronger .—R. Cowen