What does the universe take the place of, when it expands?

Question

When somethng expands it takes the place of something that was already there. When the universe expands, what does it take the place of? What is already there for it to take the place of?

Answer 1

it was a void G-D is filling the void.

Answer 2

I like this question! I personally don't believe in either the big bang or the universe expanding. Thats another story so i'll just stick with answering your question in the "scientific" way.

The leading theory out there is the string theory. It states that there are multiple universes within an even larger universe. So simply put, when our universe expands it would take up more of this space within the larger universe.

But I don't believe string theory either, so i put to you:

What if the universe is not expanding but rather we (earth) are being pulled closer to the "black hole" in the center of our galaxy. The telescopes would indeed see the "edge of the universe" getting further away, but it would only be an optical illusion.

Never stop questioning!!!!

Answer 3

Actually nothing is expanding into anything in the conventional sense you are referring to. The concept of expanding universe is a result of a direct solution to Einstein's Field Equations of General Relativity discovered by Friedmann and further developed by Lemaître. More recent work as been done by Robertson and Walker[1]. The solution results is a metric where space-time is expanding by space points moving apart as time progresses.

Imagine being in a large dark room (so you can't see the walls) with point lights distributed throughout. With a view finder you measure distance to some of the lights in different directions. (Being a good scientist - you write these measurements down. Maybe even publish a paper.) Later you measure the distance again and find that point lights have moved away from you, regardless of what the direction you look. Since they are point sources they don't seem smaller, but your measurements indicate they are further.

So you have a choice: either accept that your measurement instrument (metric) in shrinking or that the space is expanding as time increases. Since this is somewhat counter intuitive - at least outside our normal experience even for Einstein - Einstein added a term multiplied be a constant that countered this expansion / instruments shrinking so that everything was back to normal - that is to say static again. The constant was called the cosmological constant because it dealt with the cosmos and was ... well ... logical.

Then Hubble measured galaxies and actually found - sure enough - they are moving away from us in any direction we look - just as the Friedmann metric predicted. Hubble's view finder is the degree that light shifts to red as the object moves away. Further the distance the further the red shift. OK so egg on the face for Einstein - "My biggest mistake" - blah blah.

So pop ahead 50 years - we find we need some quick expansion to explain the apparent uniformity of space. Yes things look clumpy now but the background radiation from back in the beginning when the Universe went transparent is remarkably uniform in any direction you look. Since the light had been bouncing around with the matter for 100,000 years or so and would reflect the temperature of the original pass - it was somewhat puzzling that it did not have more variation.

Pop the cosmological constant back in for a split second and voila - we have inflation - a object the size of our DNA expanded to the size of our galaxy (10^50 times) - or was it the size of a galaxy all along and our rulers shrunk to the size of DNA. Now pop ahead another 20 years and we find that the expansion is accelerating - it was going "normal" for 7 billion years but then just starts accelerating again.

So now we have dark energy to explain this phenomenon. If its the same everywhere all the time - then we pop the cosmological constant back in - but if it is not - then we have some more physics to discover. What we are looking for is negative gravity the pushes mass apart rather than attract - a kind of gravitational pressure based upon mass. Or are we looking for something that causes the speed of light (our cosmic measuring stick) to change over time?

Anyway you look at it - its not Kansas anymore. How in this sea of questions and puzzles - anyone can say there are multiple universes, parallel dimensions or white holes feeding black holes is beyond me.

Maybe just to keep us all at peace and from frying our brains thinking about this stuff - we simply accept that space is expanding and draw pictures like the one you find here [2]. Hopefully no one will ask what is space expanding into. Duh...thats right you did!

Answer 4

You have asked a question that cannot be answered with any degree of validity. No one really knows what our observable universe is expanding into. No matter what the theory, whenever someone speculates our universe expanding into anything, questions are always raised, "What is that anything, where is it, how did it get there, when did it get there, how much of that anything is there, why is it there, and, even, who put it there if you believe in a god of some sort."

There are some guesses on some of the questions, but they fall way short of being theories because none of these guesses is remotely provable. One guess is that our observable universe is a so-called white hole spewing mass energy into a universal sized black hole. But then that begs the question, what's the black hole drilled into; that is, what's outside that universal sized black hole?

String theory [See "The Elegant Universe," by Brian Greene.] speculates parallel universes. Where each universe lies hidden from all the others because they lie in different dimensions. Greene models the parallel universes like so-many slices of bread in a loaf. But, again, that begs the question "How big's the loaf and what lies on the other side of that loaf?"

Answer 5

many human beings incorrectly imagine of the remember of the universe increasing right into a large empty area. it is inaccurate. it really is area itself it really is increasing. As area expands, issues that are close mutually develop into extra aside. This outcome isn't major on a small scale yet when we seem at distant galaxies we come across the area in between is increasing at the type of cost that they are hurtling faraway from us. yet area isn't increasing 'into' something. So there is not something outdoors the universe.

Answer 6

Nothing. True -- when most things expand, they expand into something and displace something. But the universe is different: it does not displace anything -- it just gets bigger.

Answer 7

Very good question. It's a mystery. Maybe it doesn't even expand -- after all, the big bang is just a theory.

Answer 8

space is just empty space
so simply, matter and energy expand into space

space has no limit. matter and energy are simply still moving outward due to the original big explosion.

there are theories that give the possiblity that matter and energy will eventually bounce back to the center.

anyhow. hope that helps.

Answer 9

Not necessarily. Air can displace the void in a vacuum. That's what is happening to the universe.

Answer 10

Noone knows.

Nothing I suppose, even though that is an odd thought.