If the universe is expanding, what exactly is it expanding into?
2006-06-30 10:49:36 · 8 answers · asked by John L 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
this is actually a common misconception about the big bang. the universe is expanding, but it is not expanding into anything. everything, even space-time seems to have originated in the big bang. the universe may be something like the two dimensional surface of a sphere. it is finite yet has no boundary and no center, and nothing exists "outside" the universe. to quote a dead writer, "there is no there, there". also, about five billion years ago, the expansion of the universe began to accelerate.
read these:
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang
2006-06-30 11:16:14 · answer #1 · answered by warm soapy water 5 · 5⤊ 0⤋
That is a good question and no one really knows the answer. Think instead of the universe as a large bubble on which the universe is the surface of the bubble. The bubble is expanding. Though spatially the universe is 3 dimensional, actually some think that it might be 11 dimensional, it helps to think of the bubble concept. The surface of the bubble expands but does not expand into anything. It just expands.
2006-06-30 18:05:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The universe isn't actually expanding at all. The idea that it does comes from misinterpreting galactic redshifts as a doppler effect when they are actually a scattering effect. The galaxies are not generally receding from each other at all. Their light simply loses energy through it's interaction with the molecular hydrogen that fills intergalactic space:
http://www.newtonphysics.on.ca/universe/
If expanding space was responsible for cosmological redshifts it would cause a reduction in the surface brightness of distant galaxies but we find this is not realized:
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-universe-not-expanding-01940.html
Also, as well as stretching out the wavelengths of light, expanding space would stretch out the light curves of quasars (their oscillation in luminance). No sign of this either:
http://phys.org/news190027752.html
This documentary may enlighten you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFFl9S39CTM There never was a Big Bang.
2014-10-25 10:02:43 · answer #3 · answered by scowie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Universe is expanding into an infinite vacuum that contains absolutely nothing.
2006-07-06 10:51:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Safety
2006-06-30 19:27:50 · answer #5 · answered by 22 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The expansion is science fiction
2006-06-30 17:53:21 · answer #6 · answered by Thermo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
expanding inot more empty space.
2006-06-30 18:11:29 · answer #7 · answered by Hanif 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
42!
2006-06-30 17:54:35 · answer #8 · answered by Thom Thumb 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋