Very Basic Universe Question

reply to post by Signals


I would think it would have to be expanding into another universe/dimension...whatever. The whole idea of the universe expanding into nothing makes my head pound, because if that were true then nothing would have to be something....right??
This may be a bit off topic, but in another thread about the LHC at Cern creating mini big bangs yesterday got me thinking (which is never a good thing) what IF those so-called mini big bangs created a universe that expanded, formed stars, galaxies ect, life developed, kindoms rose and fell, life went extinct, then new life formed over billions and billions of what would seem like years to the micro inhabitants of said universe, then the universe expanded as much as it possibly could until there was nothing left. It only took a few seconds for the scientists at Cern to witness this (I think it was only a few seconds I could be wrong), but for those "people" it was an eternity. So maybe some scientist in a bigger world than ours created an LHC to find there origins and we're just an experiment to them. Basically we're expanding/shrinking/whatever into there universe, or labortory. Sounds crazy I know.

Dunno, we're still trying to figure out what makes up the universe we're in.
Ony very advanced theories hypothesize about it, but who knows.
Maybe all we are is inside a LHC.

reply to post by Wondering302




I've used this cartoon before, but you made me remember it-

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bebd9c3c4f19.jpg[/atsimg]

There is no space-time where there is no Universe. As it gets bigger, there is more space - that's what the expansion of the universe is - the creation of more space. You can't travel past the edge of the Universe, because there is no there there.

At present, we can see back to about 480 million years after the Big Bang in visible light to certain galaxies that are 13.2 billion light years away/in the past. But since the universe has been expanding in all directions, that 26.4 billion light year diameter sphere-shaped swathe of the Universe we are able to see is only a small fraction of the total size of the Universe. We call what we can see the "Observable Universe," because that is all we will probably ever be able to see or detect of existence. Everything else beyond that point has expanded "beyond the horizon" of what is visible to us and light from there will never reach us because relative to them we are all moving away from each other faster than the speed of light.

Current theory (but disputed by some serious people) is that the Universe will continue to expand in this way and except for our own galaxy, everything else in the universe will be too far away and moving too fast from us to be observed. The sky will go dark, at least as far as other galaxies are concerned. Any beings that might be alive at that time in existence might theorize that the Milky Way is the whole of the Universe, because nothing else will be observable outside of it.

reply to post by Signals


Nice! My theory has been proven.
I think i'll drive to Stennis in MS after work today and present them with my theory and this comic as proof. I will be sure to give them your ATS user name so that you may get credit too

Seriously tho, that's the only way I can wrap my head around the creation of the universe. I have spent hours and days searching the internet trying to find an answer to that very question. You'd probably find Michio Kaku (sp?) very interesting. I'm going to give you a S&F