What is "outside" the universe?

Question

I'm hoping for more of a scientific explanation than philisophical... Even if its just really good science for why we cant know. Or what is speculated. But I'll take some interesting philosophy too.

Answer 1

this is actually a common misconception about 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. nothing exists "outside" the universe. to quote a dead writer, "there is no there, there".

read this:
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147

Answer 2

That depends on what theory you buy into:

I think according to the M Theory & observed radiation in space, the Universe is just one of many Universes floating around as a "bubble" in a Multiverse filled with universal "bubbles" in different shapes. The creation of a new universes is not by a "Big Bang" but more like cellular reproduction. You get two universes bumping in the multiverse, at the contact point a new universe is created, and has as it physics the combination of the two.

That's a pretty simplistic answer; but in science the simplest answer is often the correct one.

Now the question arises: What is outside the "Multiverse" & does it comprise anything?

Answer 3

The fact of the matter is that we don't even know where the universe ends or if it even has boundaries. Many Astrophysicists will tell you that the universe is indeed finite while others will tell you that it is infinite. So really until we know whether or no the universe actually ends we can't know if there is anything else.

And of course there is always the semantic argument that the Universe is everything but most physicists look at it as a closed set.

Answer 4

The standard answer is that the universe is finite yet unbounded. There is no end to a ring for example.
The big bang created our whole universe and that is all there is.

My personal belief is the big bang only made our piece of the universe, but there is other stuff outside of it.

Answer 5

i would say either an infinite number of dimensions that go beyond the 1st 2nd and 3rd in order to keep the fabric of time and space stable or small openings into alternate universes e.g two marbles close together since the universe is expanding in a bubble like shape

Answer 6

The universe is outside the universe there's no end. In more of a science fiction way maybe a barrier.

Answer 7

Nothing is outside the universe....but I hear there is a really great restaurant just this side of the edge of the universe that gets a spectacular light show every night!

Answer 8

A bunch of other universes spiraling around.

Think about it... electrons spin around a nucleus. The earth spins around the sun. The galactic arms spin around the galactic star cluster at the center. Just seems like that's how things large and small are made.

Answer 9

Starbucks

Answer 10

the universe is supposed to be everything, new theories say that by surpassing the speed of light you'll enter a place "outside the physical rules" of universe also know as alter-verse or hyperspace this is actually not a "place" on itself is theorized to be more like a state of matter