Spooky Mulder

...of the Universe?*


*This post is in the response to a request for more thoughts and quality questions from the mind of Spooky Mulder

stilover

Nothing. The Universe in Infinite. Fact.

ChefDude

surely, if the universe has an age, it has a size and mass?

SJ_Skyline

Broccoli

Spooky Mulder

The Universe is not infinite - that is a convenient concept because it is SO big.

Most mathematicians and physicists will say the Universe is finite. So what is on the outside - what is the Universe expanding into?

bigsinky

it's a meaningless question. our universe could be inside an atom in a red blood cell. a more interesting question is how many dimensions does the universe have.

[geekmode]Superstrings, D-branes, M-branes and K theory all seek to explain this.[/geekmode]

markr1963

Maybe it's like this:
The last bit from The Men in Black

bigsinky

exactly. the marble scene. i forgot about that

darts_aint_sport

I read somewhere scientists think the universe is believed to be like a torus, so there'd be no 'edge' of space.

The bigger question for me, what was before the big bang?

ChefDude

Huffing and puffing?

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Isn't the Universe like the surface of a sphere? Eventually you'll get back to where you started (if you know where you're going & you've got some spare time on your hands) albeit essentially infinite as there is no end to it.

TX.

Spooky Mulder

I often think that the Universe is actually a God particle awaiting to be discovered by a large Haldron Collider in the sky!!!

Leslie

There are enough theories about all these things, but they are still theories, not proof.

Its a fascinating thought about the size of space beyond the Universe. Sometimes I wonder whether all those galaxies will suddenly come to a full stop as they reach the edge, if there is one!

What was before the big bang, which is not yet proved anyway, even if it appears to be the best explanation so far, is another impossible thing to imagine.

The fact is, we just dont know. Maybe we will learn more definitive facts as time goes by and science improves. To just try to imagine the true vastness of the whole thing is just mindbending! Meanwhile, more theories will appear of course.

Les

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Isn't the expansion of the Universe slowing down ergo one day it will start to contract? Time in reverse

TX.

jonc

Well there are 2 schools of thought, one is the universe is infinite and the other finite.

In the infinite universe, the universe isn't expanding into anything, it just that everything in the universe is stretching, eg, the distance between the galaxies is being stretched out as every point in the universe. As the universe is infinite, it is infinite to being with and therefore not expanding or changing in size.

If the universe is finite then since we are bound by the laws that what we know makes up our universe and what we can observe within it we cannot answer what is outside the universe.

Simple really......

bigsinky

nice one

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Yes... that theory is rather like jumping... You jump into the air and gravity first slows you down,for a fraction of a second stops you and then finally pulls you back down.

Every object which has mass has a gravitational pull so the theory runs that eventually the combined gravity of all the planets, stars etc will eventually slow the expansion completely and then start pulling it all back in again until you end up with one single unstable entity which explodes as starts the whole thing over again.

Essentially known as "The Big Crunch"

5t.

jonc

Or the big crunch may not happen and that the universe will continue to expand infinitely and all matter within the universe will spread out so much that there will be nothing left.

The discovery of "dark energy" has the opposite affect to gravity and pushes against the universe and speeding up expansion.

dunx

iTrader: (3)

We are only able to comprehend the three dimensions in which we exist, and "see" time passing.... but in the other dimensions the opposite may occur.

That's my view.

I also postulated that the red-shift off far off galaxies is a side-effect of the infinitely greater density of the matter within the universe soon after the big-bang. IMHO this would reduce the speed of light.

dunx

serega

Regarding the expansion, contraction.

Newton believed that the universe was static, but then one day some dude wrote to him saying that if Newton believes that all bodies in the universe have gravity then how come all those bodies dont just pull everything together on themselves ? Newton scratched his head and came up with an answer - because everything in the universe is so perfectly balanced, gravitational forces of each body is perfectly balanced out.

Later when Einstein introduced his theories after many nights at the patent office, it followed that the universe was indeed expanding, but at the same time it raised the same question as with Newtons theory. How can the universe be expanding if the gravitational forces should be pulling things together ? So Einstein scratched his head and came up with "dark matter" (he didnt call it dark matter at the time, but referred to it as mysterious matter that most of the space consisted of) that was balancing things out and keeping the universe constant so as not to propose something as crazy as expansionary universe. But he was later made to admit that the universe was indeed expanding after proof from Edwin Hubble who showed that galaxies were drifting apart.

The big crunch is a novelty idea along with big rip and big bounce etc.

So to answer the first question - If the universe is indeed expanding, then there is something for the universe to expand into so we can be sure that something exists outside our universe or does our universe create existence by converting matter?. So the answer seems to be that there is either something, or there is nothing outside of our universe.

StickyMicky

It is blatantly expanding into the "outer universe"

I have looked into this a little and read some fascinating thoughts, including a "ring donut" shaped one .

I personally think they key to this riddle is because we can only really handle the 3 dimensions, also read a cracking page once on the 4th dimension and if we could see this, we could see through things>? this train of thought put time as the 5th dimension for some reason.

StickyMicky

Here is a 2D projection of a 3D projection of a rotating 4D cube

serega

Oh yeah and not forgetting M-theory.
YouTube - Part 10: M-theory
this vid can explain it better. S

serega

This is another cool video - how to understand 10 dimensions

YouTube - Ten dimensions

BOB.T

'I know it's not what it says in the book, I've done it before, it'll be fi.......'

Leslie

Has "dark energy" been positively shown to actually exist, or is it yet another theory manufactured to suit the circumstances?

It is amazing how all these theories are assumed to be correct when in fact they have not been proved.

Les

jonc

None of these theories have been proven, not even the universally accepted Big Bang theory. As you may know, gravity pulls everything together and with all the matter in the universe, expansion of the universe should be slowing down. However, recent discovery has shown that expansion of the universe is actually speeding up, so some energy, dark energy, out there is overcoming the pull of gravity accelerating the expansion.

LG John

This is how it all started (sorry about quality, only clip I could find)

SJ_Skyline

I let the wife drive the car

mamoon2

I have a theory, and I would like anyone to prove me wrong! But I bet you can't!

My theory is that we are all part of a game, programmed by "other beings" to do and think everything we do. Like a huge version of "The Sims"

Go on prove me wrong!.... bet you can't!