How big is the universe?

Okay, I don't want people's home-made theories here. I want to know what the current estimation for the size of the universe is. Assuming there is an end of course.

Go here: www.abovetopsecret.com... It has been discussed and has some good information.

The universe is infinite, everlasting and never ending. Well, that what i learnt anyways. Each day, the universe is growing even more and expanding with more planets,etc, so in theory the universe is infinite.

The Universe is surrounded by land and sea.

To the north is Canada, to the South poor people and to the East and West, a lot of water, above are the heavens and below is hell.

At least thats how some people perceive it.

Sorry I couldn't convert that to square miles....!!

We can only see about12-13 billion lightyears outthere. So, it has taken light 13 billion years to travel from there to here. We do not know if it is bigger, we only know what we observe, and we can't observe further then that.

Hubble's law makes it possible to estimate the size from the speed with which objects are rushing away from the earth.

At present the universe is believed to be at least 10 billion light-years in diameter.

As to "what's on the other side?" - nothing is on the other side. Absolutely nothing. When the Creator set off the original Big Bang, he operated in complete nothingness.

Here are two web pages with an interesting, entertaining, short and simple explanation to understand both the theory of Creation and the theory of Relativity:

Origin of the universe: onealclan0.tripod.com...

Explanation of relativity: onealclan0.tripod.com...

Originally posted by infinite
The universe is infinite, everlasting and never ending. Well, that what i learnt anyways. Each day, the universe is growing even more and expanding with more planets,etc, so in theory the universe is infinite.

How can it be expanding if it is infinite? BTW, has anyone tried imagining what infinite really is? It boggles the mind. Think of the biggest number, then add 1 and so on and so on.

Originally posted by nyarlathotep
How can it be expanding if it is infinite?

It just keeps expanding, thus making it infinite. And erm, koka, are you talking about America?

Originally posted by JustAnIllusion

Originally posted by nyarlathotep
How can it be expanding if it is infinite?

It just keeps expanding, thus making it infinite. And erm, koka, are you talking about America?

I don't agree. If something is infinite, then it has no end. In order for something to expand, it has to have a beginning and an end.

Not necessarily. The universe will never stop expanding. It doesnt have to have an end. And I dont know about a beginning.

I know what you are saying JAI. I am just saying that infinite means having no end. How can something expand if it has no end? Say for example a balloon. It has a definite end, the outer edge of the baloon itself. When you blow air into it, that edge expands. So I guess that what I am trying to say is that if there is no end, how can it expand? Maybe it is just the inability of my pea brain to grasp it.

Also, another thought. If the universe is indeed finite, what is on the outside of it? Nothing? What is nothing? Oh crap, I have got a headache now.

Originally posted by JustAnIllusion
Not necessarily. The universe will never stop expanding. It doesnt have to have an end. And I dont know about a beginning.

That may not be true some scientist think that the universe will colapse in on its self. Of course the other end of the spectrum might be true that it will expand forever till everything is so far apart you wouldnt see a single star in the sky. Either its going to be a big crunch or a deep freeze in the end they keep changing there mind on which one will happen so who knows.

Infinite by definition has no begining and no end, humankind cannot grasp the concept of infinity in universal terms, it's bindmoggling....!!

If the universe is expanding still, what exactly is it expanding into?

The universe will remain infinite until we develop technology that can determine otherwise.

JustAnIllusion, the clues are in the statement.

Here is a recent link I found news.bbc.co.uk...

It says (in a nutshell) that the universe is very big .

It goes into more detail than I have . check it out .

It is good that Hubble's law allows us to know scientifically what many of us have intuited and/or reasoned: that the Universe is not infinite, just very, very large.

At least ten billion light years (astronomers say at least 156 billions light years) in diameter! WOW.

I also agree that it is surrounded by nothingness.

Thanks 2012 and OddTodd.

Someone once said:

When science has climbed the mountain of knowledge, at the top will be religion, having been waiting there all along.

There is some truth to that.




[edit on 1-7-2004 by Paul_Richard]

Originally posted by Paul_Richard
Someone once said:

When science has climbed the mountain of knowledge, at the top will be religion, having been waiting there all along.

There is some truth to that.

[edit on 1-7-2004 by Paul_Richard]

There was religion sitting on top of the mountain claiming they had found heaven, and it took science to tell them, "No, you're just on top of a mountain...!!"