Is This All There Is?

[Marshwarble]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/map-entire-universe-squeezed-one-105118063.html Or does the universe go on forever? What are your thoughts?

[woofgang]

helpy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRZZC-DH7M

[ToraToraTora]

dunno but I love the picture!

[ichkeria]

Spherical image? Is it three-dimensional?
A 4-dimensional image with built-in gravity distortions: that would be something :-)
If the universe is still expanding presumably it can't go on forever - yet :-)

[New Judge]

The Universe must go on forever. If it does not, what is beyond the point where it ends? I've heard all the theories about gravitational distortion. It's all unsatisfactory. If it ends there must be something (even if it's just empty space) beyond where it ends and that must also be part of the Universe.

[Old_Geezer]

The universe can not be infinite. It had a start when it was very small. Surely no one seriously suggests there is such a thing as infinite acceleration ? It is why I contend that space has to curve regardless of our inability to detect the slight curvature of such a large 'thing' at present.

[ichkeria]

By "gravity distortions" the distortions that cause gravity not vice versa.
And although I wasn't being entirely serious, it seems pretty clear that an expanding universe cannot be infinite. Just because there is no "other" space doesn't mean something must be infinite.

Someone phone Professor Cox :-)

[New Judge]

The notion of infinity does not fit well with me. As far as I know the expansion which is currently being witnessed is not of the space but of the matter within it.

However none of this really matters. For me the question is simple: if the Universe is finite it must end somewhere and somehow (even if it is "curved"). If so, what is beyond where it ends?

[Marshwarble]

It's less complicated than the map in Time Bandits, which is a good thing.

[jim360]

"If [the Universe is finite], what is beyond where it ends?"

There are two valid answers to this: no idea, and nothing. I can't particularly comment on the first option (pick your favourite version of M-Theory), so I'll just leave it. However what is true is that the logic that led you to ask the question in the first place is a little mistaken, relying as it does on conceptions of boundaries that are a bit too three-dimensional.

Essentially the point is that there is no place you can stand in the Universe that you can call a boundary, at least not a preferred one. And that already makes the concept of "beyond" misleading. There is no beyond. There is no need for it. In the same way, the Universe doesn't have a centre point (or at least again, it doesn't have a preferred centre point. You can't draw an edge, and you can't find a centre. In that context, you can't even frame the question about what lies beyond. It doesn't really make any sense.

[naomi24]

Who knows? No one.

[sandyRoe]

God knows. ;-)

[naomi24]

If he does, he's keeping it quiet. No change there. ;o)

[jim360]

Well, true, no-one really knows, but it's still possible to frame the question in a more accurate way than NJ's version. There is either nothing, absolutely nothing at all, "beyond" the universe, or whatever is "beyond" is not a part of it in any meaningful sense.

[naomi24]

Regardless of the way in which the question is framed, the answer remains the same. No one knows.

[trt]

How can it end, there cant be a brick wall as there has got to be something behind that?

A bit like Frankie Vaughans, Green Door, '' what's that secret your keeping''.

[sandyRoe]

What about parallel universes? Where ours ends others begin.

[jim360]

I'm not arguing with you Naomi, but there are different kinds of not knowing -- at the very least, we have a far better idea of what we don't know now than we ever had before, and in years to come our ignorance will be even better understood.

[sandyRoe]

Indeed, there are the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns, as someone once famously said.

[-Talbot-]

sandyRoe
Indeed, there are the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns, as someone once famously said.



I think that was Old_Geezer?

[New Judge]

If there is absolutely nothing then it would still be possible to travel through it then.

Leaving aside the logistical problems and the possibility of colliding with something else (or being dragged into its gravitational field), if you could travel from the Earth forever would there ever be anything to stop you? And if so, the same question arises: what is beyond where you stop?

What's wrong with the idea that you could travel forever? Why complicate matters?

"There is no beyond. There is no need for it. In the same way, the Universe doesn't have a centre point (or at least again, it doesn't have a preferred centre point. You can't draw an edge, and you can't find a centre."

In my infinite model there would be no edge, no boundary, no centre. Your explanation sounds just like an infinite universe to me, jim.