How does the Universe work?

Question

They say the universe is expanding outward, how does earth fit into this, whats behind us? I'm having a hard time understanding this.

Answer 1

The universe is expanding. That is to say that existence itself is expanding out from the big bang. It's like inflating a balloon. If you draw two dots on a balloon and then add air, the dots seem to move apart, but it's not that the dots have moved on the balloon, but that the balloon itself has expanded. Eventually the expansion will slow and possibly collapse upon itself if there is enough mass in the universe (this is the current debate)

Answer 2

Firstly could I just point out that nightshadow is talking such bollocks. How can it be a "fact" that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on every beach on the planet? It cannot be measured to any degree of accuracy. For all we know the universe ends at the point we have reached in general space exploration to date.

What is certain is that the Universe is so large that it must be considered as infinite in terms of human comprehension. That is noty to say that it does not have an end to it. It simply means that nobody could ever find out, because by the time you reached the end, you'd have died of old age.

The earth fits in as relative non-entity in this whole cosmos. We are one of many floating balls up there. We may be the only planet with an evolved civilisation, we may be one of millions. The universe is not really meant to be "understood" in any real terms. All knowledgeand books etc around the subject are based on theories anyway. No one can actually prove that aliens do or don't exist. No one can prove that the universe is expanding or contracting. It's just a bunch of speculation...

Answer 3

The universe can be described as expanding uniformly, that is roughly equally in all directions, using the cosmological principle as evidence. The cosmological principle states that the universe is roughly the same in all directions and all places are, for the most part, alike at any time. These two conditions are called isotropism and homogeneity. So, by the cosmological principle, the universe must be expanding uniformly because all distances between clusters of objects must increase proportionately. This is not to say that the expansion of the universe is remaining constant. The expansion could be accelerating in a uniform fashion in all directions.

Uniform expansion does not necessarily imply that everything in the universe is moving away from one another at exactly the same speed, regardless of the distance between objects. Rather, uniform expansion is the idea that anyone on any planet at any part of the universe will see the same pattern as anyone else at a completely different part of the universe. Uniform expansion is the only behavior that follows the Cosmological Principle.

Answer 4

Holy Cow Batman! What a question! How can we understand something that we have not even begun to explore. We can speculate and even make a few accurate observations but most of it is pure conjecture, God knows how the Universe works, ask Him let me know what kinda answer you get. Here is a nugget.
"All that exists came into existence through the interaction of the active force and that which is its recipient. They are the same but they are different."
I would guess that the Universe is infinite. solar systems are born and die. Stars are born, go nova and super nova and eventually to black holes. Its a million times more than what you can imagine. Like a child walking through the New York City public library. He can walk through the library but can he understand the innermost meaning of all the books written, understand the meaning of each word, get the plots and such?
I could guess that in some small way our solar system is like a tiny seed that in some way reflects the Universe. Planets stars moons and suns are somehow involved in a dance. They need each other but.they are all part of ONE big something.
I cannot explain how the Universe works but any kind of a beginning of a decent explanation should take 50 pages. I'll follow your answers. Maybe there is an astronomer,philosopher,scientist who could attempt a reply!
Your question blows my mind! Bravo!!!

Answer 5

the great bang round 15 billion years in the past. The universe remains increasing because of it. The furthest issues away are transferring away at nearlly the speed of sunshine because they have been accelerating the longest. present day astro-physics thinks that the great bang replaced into one million of many in a universe with out end or starting up. If there is sufficient count interior the universe to halt the enlargement and opposite it via mutual gravitational charm the universe ought to finally fall down right into a singularity and convey a huge bang all throughout lower back. This concern can provide us a universe with out starting up or end even if it may oscillate between the great bang to the great crunch to the great bang, ad infinitum, cycling once each 22 billion years or so. this added count that they are searching for is properly-called darkish count and there is mounting information that it does exist in sufficiently large parts to reason this oscillating universe. How large is it? The furthest gadgets that we can see are round 12 - 15 billion elementary years away. it somewhat is, on the speed of sunshine (7 circumstances worldwide in one million second) it may take 12 - 15 billion years to get there. the elementary we are seeing from those distant gadgets has taken 12 - 15 billion years to achieve our eyes it really is 3 circumstances longer than the Earth, solar or image voltaic equipment has existed. So the universe is more suitable than large, that is larger than the human mind can somewhat understand. wish this sparks your pastime some more suitable

Answer 6

Truth is, no one understands it. Maybe humans are just not smart enough, or our scientific knowledge is in its infancy, or both.

Here's what I know: at some point about 15 billion years ago, there was some giant explosion called the big bang, which produced the universe and all time and space. (What was here before "time" existed? What is past the edge of the universe? What does an "infinite" universe mean? No one knows!) Somehow, over time, this explosion of matter settled into galaxies and stars. Stars have a "life" of from (I think) millions to billions of years; they are essentially giant "hydrogen bombs" that fuse hydrogen into heavier elements, creating all the matter we have today. The sun is a star about half way through its 10 billion year life; one day it will burn out. YOU, and I, and everything on Earth came from elements created in past generations of stars that have died.

The universe presently consists of billions of galaxies, each of which consists of billions of stars like the sun. We are just beginning to discover planets around these other stars, somewhat like the planets in our own solar system. We've got about nine (or eight, or ten, depending on whom you ask) planets, including the Earth, going around the sun. The Moon goes around the Earth. Our solar system is believed to be about 41/2 or 5 billion years old.

Because light travels at a finite speed (186,000 miles a second), when we look in the sky we see objects as they WERE when the light left there to get to here. Light from the sun takes about 8 minutes to reach us. So the most distant galaxies we can see are billions of "light years" away - some of them probably aren't even there anymore, but all we see is the light they emitted many billions of years ago, when they WERE there.

The universe is till expanding from the Big Bang. Everything is moving away from everything else; there's no "edge" to the universe that we know of. Will it expand forever, or eventually contract and fall in on itself again? People are still trying to figure that out. it depends on whether the universe has enough mass to pull itself back together.

Pretty crazy, huh? Read about black holes, Einstein's theories, and how time, space, matter and energy are related, and it will give you a real head rush. I can't even begin to understand quantum physics, and again I don't know that anyone does.

I bet in 100 years people would laugh at how we got it all wrong. But this is pretty much what we THINK we know, now.

Answer 7

The earth is located in the outer rim of the Milky Way galaxy, which is basically shaped like a spiral. Our galaxy is moving through space away from other galaxies, presumably because all galaxies exploded out of a central point eons ago and remain in motion to this day. No one really knows for sure what forces caused all the stars and planets to form, but we'll know one day. 500 years ago we didn't know that the sun was stationary and the earth moved.

Answer 8

The Univerese is infinate. I don't believe it's expanding it just continues to fill empty space. Metaphorically, think of a small town out in the county. The town, like Earth will always be there, but in time other town and cities will beginto grow around it.

Answer 9

There are six simple equations that basically sum up the functions of the universe. Once you look at those equations you'll see the universe is NOT expanding as "popular" belief says. The universe is static and also finite.

Answer 10

It is expanding from the center that everything supposedly came from. Not the earth! It is called the Big Bang Theory.