How far up does the universe go? I don't think humans are capable of grasping the concept of infinite, but it's still an interesting thought. People claim that the universe goes on forever in every direction, but what if there is some sort of ceiling to the world? Discuss!
The evidence actually suggest that the universe is finite in size. Although I'm not to familar with the exact structure of the universe.
the universe is actually bigger then we previously thought! we recently found a quasar that is over 4 BILLION light years across (the milky way is only 100,000 light years across), the biggest thing we've found in space yet. and apparently it breaks all the rules that we have previously thought about the universe. Largest Structure in Universe Discovered | Space.com
The weirdest thing I can't grasp is that dark energy makes more space out of space. The universe is expanding from it's own nothingness. Did I blow your mind?
The laws of thermodynamics state that all of the energy and matter that exists in the universe has always existed. We can not create or destroy matter or energy. That means that at some point, when the universe reaches a large enough size the energy within it will be so greatly dispersed that all motion will stop. The theory is known as the big freeze theory or heat death. http://www.universetoday.com/36917/big-freeze/ The second theory is the Big Crunch. This idea states that the universe will eventually collapse in on itself. It's basically a reverse Big Bang. Either way the universe, so far as we theorize, is finite.
these kinds of thoughts can make one go mad. its hard to accept that no one truly knows or can comprehend this extent of our universe. i see the size of our universe as something small in another universe and it just keeps going. there could have been infinite big bangs that are far away and much bigger/smaller. just some of my thoughts..
Personally I belong to the "expanding universe" theory. While we can only somewhat guess at this it makes sense to me that the big bang, which set everything in motion, was actually so huge that it's still taking place today, but at the edge of space. Think out about it. Even if the big bang travels at the speed of light it still takes a LOOOOOOONG time to fill infinity I'm too high for this...
Thanks for the posts everyone. Lots of really interesting ideas so far. I think it's extremely difficult for us to actually obtain any solid evidence about the universe as a whole. It's much too large to study thoroughly and it's just out of reach for our current level of technology.
The universe is forever growing in every direction. Thats why the 4th dimension is seen as being "time" because we can essentially look into our past if we look far enough away (i.e. Cosmic Background Radiation). There was a "beginning" 13.7 billion years ago and as time goes on the universe continues to grow as long as time continues.
If what your looking for is a number, the OBSERVABLE universe is roughly 92 billion light years across (46 billion in any direction from earth)but the whole universe is without a doubt infinite.
Nothingness is merely another plane of existence. Dark Matter ebbs and flows out of its plane of existence, perhaps leaving residual, unexplained trails or phenomena around itself. We merely exist in the plane of "something", where we have placed laws around how things act within our known realm or plane. We don't think of "nothing" as being any sort of equal or reverse image of "something". We dismiss it altogether. What if we were wrong all along? Is nothing...actually something?
I wasn't looking for a specific answer, but rather to discuss different ideas. I just thought it was an interesting concept and it blew my mind. A lot of this stuff really intrigues me.. like how could we possibly know that the observable universe is 92 billion light years across? I don't understand how scientists are able to figure this stuff out.
That was very informative. Really enjoyed that video, thanks for sharing!! Can anyone explain the theories regarding multi-verses? One of my professors mentioned the concept of multiple universes being like bubbles.
I like this, what if nothing is time dependent? It is always there but can never be reached until we cease to exist.
Where does "nothing" actually exist? To my knowledge, our whole planet consists of something. The entire solar system and galaxy are both made up of something. Would a black hole be considered "nothing"? Perhaps this "nothing" is just something we humans have fabricated ourselves.
I myself am a avid researcher when it comes to the universe and all of its wonderful mysteries but I think the universe it's self really is too big to grasp, we can state all the big numbers we want but in reality it's just way too big for us. I enjoy it more for its beauty and awesome power that beyond dwarfs what many of us humans consider powerful or big it's just mind blowing and I love it!