Edge of the Universe

[deadman]

What would happen if you took a ship to the edge of the universe, and tried to fly into it as it expands outward? That has always intreged me.

[.jolinar.]

Just as there are an infitite number of universes, there are also an infinite number of galaxies. I think. Either that or millions of billions of them. Either way you'd die first.

[PG15]

There is no edge to the universe, at least not to us.

Imagine living on the surface, and ONLY the surface of a sphere. You will never find an edge, no matter where you go. That's the universe for ya.

[knowles2]

In the start trek Next generation I think they reach somewhere on the edge of the universe in one of their ep. It where their dreams became real.

PG15 is correct in theory we live on the surface of sphere, well one of theory anyway.

[fugiman]

Well if you ask me I think that when you reach the edge you will see a glass case and on the outside you will see giant aliens looking back at you

But really I would like to go to the edge or the angel of the edge or whatever PG15 said

[ManiacMike]

I always though that when you reach the edge of the universe you will go back to your starting point.

Like, say you started at planet X. It took you a million years going at x 1000 light speed. In a million years of not stopping and going in a straight line (relatively). Your great great great great great great (x1000) grand kids would reach the end of the universe finally and its planet x.

[Avatar28]

Well in the Stargate universe the universe is infinite so you couldn't reach the edge of it. Even in our universe, my understanding of the prevailing opinion is that there is no edge. PG15s description of it as a Sphere is probably not too far off the mark. The universe is probably a sort of expanding 4 dimensional "bubble" in higher dimensional space.

[Kingomon]

maybe you reach an alternate reality

but I like the Sphere Idea better

[Tibit]

If you think about it, assuming the 'expanding universe model', everything in the universe is expanding outward from the big bang. Beyond the 'edge' would just be nothing, perfect vacuum that nothing from the big bang has reached yet.

[PG15]

Nope, that's a picture wrongfully painted by the usual Balloon analogy.

It's nonsense trying to talk of "what's beyond the universe"; space itself expanded from the big bang, and there is no space as we know it "outside the universe"; there is not even nothing, because nothing indicates that there is actually space out there. There isn't, the only space is inside the universe. It's hard to wrap your mind around it, because you pretty have to think in more than 3 spatial dimensions.

Basically, the universe isn't expanding into anything, it's just expanding.

[Avatar28]

Nope, that's a picture wrongfully painted by the usual Balloon analogy.

It's nonsense trying to talk of "what's beyond the universe"; space itself expanded from the big bang, and there is no space as we know it "outside the universe"; there is not even nothing, because nothing indicates that there is actually space out there. There isn't, the only space is inside the universe. It's hard to wrap your mind around it, because you pretty have to think in more than 3 spatial dimensions.

Basically, the universe isn't expanding into anything, it's just expanding.

It is hard to really wrap your mind around. It depends somewhat, too, on which cosmology you believe. My understanding of m-theory is that it suggests the universe DOES exist "inside" some sort of higher dimensional space. I'm not sure that it is really any sort of place that we could understand, though.

[MechaThor]

Maybe the Edge of the Universe is like Pac man. You think yiou have left the map but instead you end up on the other side again. That or its just carzyness and complete chaos inwhich your mind cannot handle what you are seeing as theres no sense of reality, time and physis and you go insane then exsplode - then are remade and exsplode again for the rest of time.

What i can't get my head around is the Donut alternate universe theory. That are "universe" is donut or sphere shaped and its floating around another dimension with other universe and when they collide yet another universe is born (i watched this on harizon on the BBC a few years back) however if that is true how can infinate space be stored in a sphere or donut???? that makes no sense? There would have to be a wall at the edge like in the "Truman show"?????????

ARGH my head hurts!

[ascendedancient42]

We live in an infinite volume of space, filled with matter and energy, like most sections we see are, varying according to random chance.

I consider our universe to be a Hubble volume, which is as far as you can see with a telescope before you start to see the big bang. Hubble volumes are really, really big.

Get to the edge of one (the edge of your universe) and you just step into another Hubble volume. More space. More matter. Same kind of thing you're used to, though there is no real line anywhere; just an imaginary one.

Now, if you're referring to getting to the edge of space itself, well, that's kind of impossible, since it has no edge. It's infinite. Endless. Without end. No edge.

[knowles2]

Maybe the Edge of the Universe is like Pac man. You think yiou have left the map but instead you end up on the other side again. That or its just carzyness and complete chaos inwhich your mind cannot handle what you are seeing as theres no sense of reality, time and physis and you go insane then exsplode - then are remade and exsplode again for the rest of time.

What i can't get my head around is the Donut alternate universe theory. That are "universe" is donut or sphere shaped and its floating around another dimension with other universe and when they collide yet another universe is born (i watched this on harizon on the BBC a few years back) however if that is true how can infinate space be stored in a sphere or donut???? that makes no sense? There would have to be a wall at the edge like in the "Truman show"?????????

ARGH my head hurts!

I remember that show where one physicists had the theory that the universe exist as membranes in the 12th or 13th diemension. Well from what I could understand on top of a membrane and that the universe is a wave traveling around that membrane or something like that. It was fascinating program, which could provide the end of the universe as if he membranes it circular then eventually the two edges of the wave would hit each other and cancel each other out. It also bring the theory of what cause the big bang in the first place was two membranes colliding together, and we are just the wave cause by the collision on top of two membranes.

And if the above theory is correct, she went on to say that gravity might not exist in this universe but is instead the gravity of other unverses project onto ours universe, probably through bends in space which created by mass, which could explain why gravity relative to other forces in the universe is so weak.

Also this theory also as the outstanding possibility that one day we could manipulate the 13 dimension to create other universes of our own, these would be completely separate from our own .

Also leave the possibility of not just stars or solar systems and galaxies to explore but entire new universes to explore to. Truly amazing possibilities now they just have to prove it mathematically, which much reliant on proving if I remember rightly that their is thirteen dimensions, and that much string theory is correct or at least proven to some extent, a lot of this is riding on what lab Cern discovers when it becomes operational and then we just have to apply the maths to into practical experiments which can be carried out, probably will not happen in our life times.


Okay my head hearts now. Not sure if that completely accurate the show was long, about two hours and it was on a long time ago, about 3 years ago, surprise I remember as much as I do.

[.jolinar.]

.: I think you're both kinda right. If I understand it correctly, the big bang created our universe as a sphere which is always growing. Like a ball, and the galaxies are inside the ball so theoreticly you should be able to reach the surface of the ball. I have a few theories of what could happen next, each as unlikely as the other so I won't bother posting them.