What lies outside of our universe and how far does it go?

Answer 1

Astronomers have tried to explain what we see in the universe around us. The simplest explanation for everything we know about the universe is called the Big Bang theory. This theory says that in the beginning, everything in the universe was all in one place. Something unknown caused the universe to begin growing. The universe began growing very quickly, and the universe is still growing even today.

At the beginning, when all the matter in the universe was contained in a very tiny volume, it was very hot. As the universe started to grow, it cooled off very quickly. When the universe was about 500,000 years old, it had cooled enough that it was possible for the atoms that make up stars and galaxies to begin to form. Energy released when the universe was small and dense, the cosmic microwave background radiation, still fills the universe today. By studying this energy, astronomers can learn what the universe was like when stars and galaxies were first able to form.

So how old is the universe? Astronomers argue about the exact age of the universe for many reasons. But they do agree that it is somewhere between 10 and 20 billion years old.


The answer is that there is no outside matter or space, we are contained within a small bubble that is expanding
spacially for us but not actually taking the space away from anywhere else.
letucre slides on the bigbang theory. large file about 2.1mb

Answer 2

Most cosmologists and scientists say that there is no edge of the universe. When people say the universe is expanding, the latest theories are that space itself is expanding (so that the distance between each galaxy is growing). In fact, current observations indicate that all galaxies appear to be accelerating away from eachother, so that there is not even technically a "center" of the universe, and all points in the universe are essentially equivalent from a toplogical viewpoint. So not only is there no edge, but there is no center.

The best way to imagine this is to think of the universe as the surface of a small balloon with a bunch of galaxies as dots on the surface. Just as the 2 dimensional surface of the balloon has no edges, the 3 dimensional universe appears not to have an edge. And as the balloon/universe expands, the overall universe increases.

Answer 3

I disagree with Justin. The current measurements of the densities of baryonic mattter, dark matter, and dark energy point towards a flat, open universe that will continue expanding without bound. The measured density/critical density is currently determined to be 1.02 +/- .02. What's more, light from distant objects is red shifted in a way that indicates that the space between us is expanding at an increasing rate, further lending creadance to an infinite universe. As far as asking what's outside our universe. It's impossible to reach. The edges of the universe are outrunning light. You may think that this is impossible, after all nothing travels faster then light, however an accelerating object can put distance between itself and an object moving at light speed. This behaves much like a black hole trapping light with sufficient gravity, in fact gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration in it's effects. There is literally an event horizon bounding our section of the universe that we live within, almost like an inverted black hole.

Answer 4

No one knows what lay beyond our Universe, but scientists at the University all tell me ther is more than one Universe. I cannot fathom that as ity is too big a thought for me to comprehend. I don't think they really know for sure. They have math and science but it's all on chalk board as theories. At least to me. I always believed there was on Universe.Mabey the Hubble will take a picture of it before it completely stops working.So far we can only look back in time to within One Billion years after the Big Bang. That's cutting it close. It's like 1 second in Universal time. I wonder why they chose to stop looking in any further?

Answer 5

accually the common most popular view (although it has not been fully decided opon yet) is that our universe is a closed universe this means that our universe has a none infinate size... the question what lies beyond is kind of not practical to ask becuase of this important piont: our universe is curved, so much that it comes back around on itself... a simple way to imagine this is to think about the 3d universe as a 2d plane, that curves on itself, a shape similare to one we are all familiar with, the surface of the earth, we can travel anywhere on the two dimentions of the surface (latatute and longitude) and if we go in a straigh line we will come back around where we started... space is like this, but in 3 dimentions... if we where to hop in a spaceship, and travel in a straight line, we would eventually come back around to where we started... pretty interesting huh? Now when you ask yourself where or what is outside, you will realize that there is no outside, yet we are still in a closed off non-infinate universe!!

Answer 6

There are actually many theories. There is a theory that the universe goes on forever without end. If that is so, there is no way of knowing what exactly there is out there. There is another thought that our universe is sort of a circle without end. That means that when you get to the end of the it you end up where you started. Ergo, circle like. For now there is no way of knowing the possibilities. What is known is that the universe is too vast for us to be the only intelligence. So, there is no doubt that there is an organism out there that we are yet to discover!!

Answer 7

I agree most whole heartedly with justin I. He explained Einsteins theory to a tee. I couldn't have put it better myself. Darn Justin you were so accurate. Our Universe is so big anyway. We'll never ever see the whole Universe up close so we'll never know. I think that anything outside the limits of our Universe contains no material, but is one monstrosity of a vacuum that keeps our Universe and solar systems intact. All of us are swirling around in a fold just like Justin I said.

Answer 8

What so ever is outside our universe is part of this universe. Beyond this universe is the Creator of this universe, He is all over inside and outside this univers, He has no limitations, no boundaries, He is the greatest of all. He has the complete knowledge of every thing. He can create any thing big or small only ' be' and it is there. He is Allah. Allah-hu-Akbar.

Answer 9

sanatcruzrc is "big" bang on! to paraphrase your question What do you hear beyond the speed of sound? (answer = nothing, until sound catches up with you). now take santacruzrc's answer and compare what do you see beyond the speed of light? Again, nothing. There are particles that are moving so fast that the "event horizon" (santacruzrc is talking about) has not caught up, and if there is a Void (vacuum) then it is likely that the event horizon may never catch up. as the universe accelerates away from it self we may one day be able to "see" the event horizon as particles accelerate beyond the speed of light and "wink" out.

Answer 10

Fish people. And rocket snails. The universe goes until you run into the edge of the giant jell-o mold that holds everything inside. Outside the jell-o mold, it's anyone's guess.