Ok, the universe. Infinite in size or what?

[redrumloa]

So does the universe go on forever, or is it a finite size? If it really ends somewhere, what is on the other end of the end? Don't say nothing, how can there be nothing? nothing is something! :-?

[odin]

The Big Bang was like 20*10^9 years ago right? That would mean that matter has been expanding for 20 billion years, which implies there is a borderzone of absolute nothingness and where matter is present.

[whabang]

If you go to the end of the Universe, and then went across the  line, then you'd be the new end of the universe. Period.

[gizz72]

Greetings,

I think the universe is 'round' not 'Flat'. We may go back to where we started. The shortcuts are 'Wormholes' that cuts into the inner core of the universe.

The center could be a 'dark matter'.

Cheers,

Gizz

[blobrana]

Hum,
i do like soft centres...

But i think that our Universe is curved like a Pringle, shaped like a horn, and named after a Star Trek character.
Check  out  the
'Picard topology' here.

And the minimun size of the universe is about 156 billion light years wide they figure...
See!

you there...! :-)

[BTW the age is about 14 Billion years, er, as if you didn`t know...]

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Well, some have the theory that the existance of the universe is one string of explosion followed by implosions
with that idea, we're still in the explosion.
As far as I know, the universe is expanding at lightspeed
and has a border of plasma.
but maybe, behind that border, there are more universes? No one can know

So, the question is: is our universe alone? Is there a limit of universes? Has 'space' where these universes are a border? :lol: :crazy:

[PMC]

@Blob,

Isn't there a theory that the universe hasn't necessarily expanded at a constant speed since the big bang?

[blobrana]

@PMC

Er, yea...
Space (or to give it a more technical name, 'The Universe') is big. Really Big, and there seemed to have been a `quick-slow-quick-quickening` rate of expansion according to the latest theories...



And because the space-time is expanding into a `void`...(er, for a better word)...then the expansion pace can be faster than light speed...it is thought that the initial expansion rate  of the universe was exponential ; and it grew to like 10⁵⁰ times the size of our observable universe in a second (er, or two)...

This  of COURSE still restricts the things in our space-time to be constrained by light speed (er, as observed   by the `fine constant` constant)

Well according to the The Guide

[PMC]

@Blob,

Please excuse my ignorance on this!

But how could the initial rate of expansion of our infant universe be faster than the speed of light, when the physical properties of the universe itself prevent anything travelling beyond that speed?

To me it's like seeing water being poured into an enormous basin from a running tap in a stready stream, yet the water at the edges of the basin is racing outwards like a tidal wave...  How could this be possible?  

Or am I being a complete dunce?

[KennyR]

@PMC

Space can expand faster than light. The edge of the universe which should be 14 billion ly away is around 27 billion ly away.

Consider the expansion of the universe as a sequence of phase transitions, like that which occur to water. As water cools and looses energy, it turns from vapour to water to ice. As the universe expanded and cooled, certain fundamental forces and effects 'froze out'; before these instants the universe's contents were too chaotic and high energy to make these forces felt individually. The expansion of space faster than the speed of light may have been possible during one of the earlier phases, but froze out and stopped after a certain point. It may be that the velocity of light actually changed to allow this effect to happen.

[blobrana]

Hum,
i think he's aware that
Speed = distance/time
 and  acceleration = ( final speed - initial speed ) / time

http://www.syptech.com/applications/eq1.gif

Which all becomes meaningless when the universe is expanding into a `region` that has no `time`.


but for something in our universe (space-time) things are ,er, differant...

[blobrana]

O









---------HEADLINE----------
The Universe stops expanding this week--keew siht gnidnapxe spots esrevinU ehT

[T_Bone]

whabang wrote:
If you go to the end of the Universe, and then went across the  line, then you'd be the new end of the universe. Period.

You're assuming that our bang is the only bang that happened, what if there were millions of big bangs, all over the universe, and none of the universes has expanded far enough to come into contact with our "bangsphere?"

If this is the case, I wonder what happens when universes start expanding into each other?

[KennyR]

T_Bone wrote:
If this is the case, I wonder what happens when universes start expanding into each other?

By definition, they can't. A universe is a universe; once a big bang happens there's no longer the conditions within that universe for it ever to happen again.

Besides which, the laws of physics are finely tuned and we would be able to detect the presence of other big bangs in our universe even if possible by mathematical analysis of fundamental properties.

[odin]

Great...now my head hurts. I knew this thread would result in that....(or could it be the beer?...).