Do we know which side of the edge of the universe is nearest to us?

has no one measured which side of the edge of the universe is nearest to us? as we cant be slap in the middle, so one side has to be nearer to us than any other side?


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reply to post by blobby


Please define edge of the universe...

... your question makes no sense otherwise, and even then there is a great probability that the question itself is nonsensical.

Wikipedia's article about the Universe (or it's simple English version).

Well, geocentrists posit that we are exactly in the middle.

I would have to say that we are located on the near side.

Well, if the Universe is infinite, then we're in the middle, relatively speaking.

Mind you, the Universe as we know it (comprised of matter) may not be infinite, but the space that it resides in surely is.

reply to post by butcherguy


We are at the center of the known Universe (known to us), but since the universe has no center (no known geometry that would allow for one) it is solely based on their belief system.

apparently according to science the universe is expanding outwards from a single point.

they say all matter exploded from a single source and this occurred 15 billion years ago.

how can they tell that if according to their theory the earth didn't exist back then.

we measure one year as one complete rotation of the earth around the sun.

how do you measure a year before the earth existed.

the truth is science has no ****ing clue about anything.

so the universe is expanding into something that doesn't exist yet. how does that even make sense, unless the universe creates it's own existence ahead of itself.

this is why God creating the universe is the only thing that makes sense. all the other explanations, contradict reality and bring in the supernatural, so all signs point to God.

so God was right, the universe for us is 6-7000 years old because that's when we first became aware of it.

i can't say i'm 500 years old because i didn't exist, therefore the world didn't exist for me, nor the universe.

for me the universe is as old as my age, and for you as old as you have been alive.

deal with it.

Everyone is the center of the universe, because we are all observers, we create, in our minds and imagination our definition and beliefs for our universe.
We are all here now, but it is but a stepping stone to where all of us will go depending on our actions and choices we learn to take in this life. Where we will go, it's all in the mind. The mind is the magic in you.
So what frequency are you vibrating on? The universe is a multidimensional wave and we are receptors, tune into another frequency and you've entered into another universe, this is how i see it.

reply to post by Unrealised

...but the space that it resides in surely is

No sir, the best you can do is say "seems to" or "most theories indicate so". We do not know since the laws of physics have been changing since the "presumed" Big-bang (or any other scientific creation theory, IIRC the Big-bang is passé, but can't remember now what took its central place, I think I saw something about the new consensus theory in on one of the latest Horizon or BBC docs. Wikipedia articles seem not to have the info yet).

reply to post by randomname

expanding outwards from a single point

It depends how you define point, my understanding is that there seems to be an expansion (acceleration in increase of distances) but there is not point, see for instance the case of the cosmic background radiation as it exists across the universe (even if not in a symmetrical way).

The glow is very nearly uniform in all directions, but the tiny remaining variations show a very specific pattern equal to that expected of a fairly uniformly distributed hot gas that has expanded to the current size of the universe.

So your point is more like an area that formed after the physics that we have now came to be...

If the universe is infinite, that would make us the centre of the universe?.

Originally posted by Panic2k11
reply to post by Unrealised

 

...but the space that it resides in surely is

No sir, the best you can do is say "seems to" or "most theories indicate so". We do not know since the laws of physics have been changing since the "presumed" Big-bang (or any other scientific creation theory, IIRC the Big-bang is passé, but can't remember now what took its central place, I think I saw something about the new consensus theory in on one of the latest Horizon or BBC docs. Wikipedia articles seem not to have the info yet).

edit on 2-10-2012 by Panic2k11 because: (no reason given)

Space is just that: Space.

















Empty Space.














It is the playground for matter.


It goes on for an eternal distance in all directions.




Our little Universe that 'may' have been caused by some exploding singularity does not.

reply to post by blobby


The answer to your question is that we don't know if there's an edge or not. We can only see a certain distance, and everywhere we look we can't see an end to the Universe. What we can see is called the "observable Universe". For all we know the Universe could be infinite. It's possible to determine if the Universe is infinite by testing if space-time is curved over a huge distance, but according to all our tests we can't detect any curvature. Meaning the Universe is either infinite, or it's so huge that we can't even detect the curvature because we can't see far enough.

In my opinion space-time is infinite, and the Big Bang was merely a release of energy inside an existing infinite space-time... our Universe is not like a bubble of space-time expanding into a void. It's like a sphere of energy expanding through existing space-time... well it's more like the space between the energy is expanding but lets not over complicate things here. I find that what they teach us in school is so over simplified that it is virtually incorrect and wrong to teach it the way they do, especially when they don't take enough time to explain what we don't understand about the shape and origins of the Universe.

reply to post by Unrealised

Space is just that: Space.

Cosmologically speaking it is Space/Time, not simply space...

The edge of the universe to us is the edge of the 'observable' universe. Therefore, becaus we can see the same distance 360 degrees around us, we appear to be in the middle. Seeing as we don't really know that much about the universe, there is no way of knowing if it even has an edge. If it does then what's on the other side of the edge?

This is where I believe 'our' universe ends and the greater universe/ multiverse begins. Just like Earth has it's exosphere and the solar system has the heliopause, the universe may have a 'unipause' where beyond there is nothing but 'space' until you reach another universe like bubbles within a bigger bubble. These bubbles just expand outwards on a bigger and bigger scale infinitely and our laws of physics may not apply. Therefore we can not imagine what lies beyond our realm of 'reality' and understanding.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Was going to star since you took the time to explain the it but noticed this error...

inside an existing infinite space-time

The "existing" makes no sense there, unless you support the notion of our universe to be expanding inside another universe... ...if that is the case, missing to point that view ruins the usefulness of the rest..

reply to post by Panic2k11


If the Universe does consist of infinite flat space-time then the Big Bang clearly did take place inside existing infinite flat space-time. Think about it. An expanding sphere of space-time cannot contain flat space. If our Universe was an expanding sphere of space-time then we could say the Universe is finite and we could detect the curvature. It very well may be curved and we just can't detect it, but if it isn't, then the theory that the Big Bang created space-time with it, is completely flawed.

The only conclusion we can draw is that space-time is infinite and our "Universe" is just a speck of energy inside that infinite space-time. It has nothing to do with a Universe inside a Universe, you are being confused by terminology. Of course if you define Universe as "all of space-time" then it will cause confusion when we're talking about infinite flat space-time, because you'd be talking about not only our little speck of expanding energy but all the others created by other Big Bangs all throughout infinite space.

And all this is really getting to the core of why it's so difficult to teach these concepts in a classroom... because we aren't 100% sure either way, and depending on which answer is correct (flat or curved), they each require you to think in two totally different ways; and unfortunately it seems popular opinion and mainstream education has been latching onto the wrong interpretation for quite some time. All the evidence is pointing towards infinite flat space-time, and the math of such a Universe is much more elegant.

Its on your left side.
So, what do you gonna do with it ?

Thats a million dollar question as we humans don't know much about Universe

double post

reply to post by ChaoticOrder

It very well may be curved and we just can't detect it, but if it isn't, then the theory that the Big Bang created space-time with it, is completely flawed.

Why, even an infinite universe can expand just as well as hyperspherical finite universe. Infinities come in different sizes. As an example, both integers and even numbers are infinite, but there is two times as much of integers than of even numbers. Just because we cannot imagine infinite expanding spacetime as simply as an expanding sphere does not mean that the idea is not mathematically consistent and valid.