It is the general consensus among today's scientific community
that the universe is expanding. The chief reason for this belief is
the perception that the visible galaxies are moving away from us.
However, a paradox exists. The galaxies, it seems, are
"accelerating" away from us. In a universe this old a rapid
"deceleration" should be well underway, with the Milky Way slowly
gaining ground (or rather, space) on our cosmological neighbors.
Intriguingly, the perception of galaxies accelerating away
from us is more indicative of a "collapsing" universe. To visualize
this concept, we must step outside of our galaxy and view the
universe as a whole.
We can assume the universe would collapse in much the same
manner that a large star collapses; a gravitational vortex with a
black hole in the center.
The gravitational pull of a black hole increases the closer an
object gets to it. Therefore, in a collapsing universe, the
galaxies between us and the center would accelerate away from us
(as the gravitational pull is greater upon them than us). At the
same time, our own galaxy is accelerating away from the galaxies
between us and the outer reaches of the universe (as the
gravitational pull is greater upon us than them), thus creating
the perception here that they are also accelerating away from us.