If the universe is always expanding, then what is it expanding into?

Question

People say the universe is growing but if the universe is endless then what exacly is beyond it?

Answer 1

Open space. We have some empty nothing to find

Answer 2

The explosion from the Big Bang is the origin, or the center. All the matter expelled will form a sphere expanding in the vacuum. As the sphere is expanding so is its "surface". As a consequence, the relative distances between the objects composing such surface will also continue to increase.
Being a sphere, you could travel around it. Which means that the "bubble" has no limits, i.e. it is endless, but not infinite. Consider that also the light will travel along the curvature,
Will the universe continue expanding forever? Last time I read about it, the scientists were trying to answer just that. Depending on the measurement of the total mass of the universe, it will or will not reverse its expansion.

Answer 3

The part of the universe we "see" is expanding. Believe it or not, we can observe only 1% of the universe. We really don't know
what the 99% of it we can't see is doing. For all we know, it could be contracting. Also, the "parts" of the universe we see, not the whole universe, is expanding. The parts we see are "red shifting".
We can see that they are all moving away from each other at the same speed. What the universe itself is doing, what its boundaries are, etc. is anyone's guess, and prob will never be known unless we become one with God himself.
Some say black holes are portals into other universes, and that the "Big Bang" in our universe was a black hole portal from
another universe. If thats the case, there are universes everywhere, infinitely, in an infinity of dimensions.
If only the universe were as easy to understand as the typical "Beverly Hillbillies" episode!

Answer 4

Read Stephen Halking's "A Brief History Of Time" it states basically that the universe is expanding and explains the limiting factors involved in the expansion. Also it states that their is evidance that the universe will eventually stop expanding and start contracting in to a "Big Crash" which would be the opposite of the "Big Bang" which would result in the end of the universe.

But read the book it will explain everything for you.

Answer 5

Well we can't really see beyond the visible portion of the universe, because the light didn't get here yet. It may be possible that the universe is already here and not expanding, it's just that we cant see it.

Answer 6

The physical universe is expanding into the non-universe. By definition, there are no physically identifiable entities beyond the limits of our universe, open space or otherwise.

Answer 7

Maybe it is not expanding at all. Maybe, the only part that we can see, and the items within, are moving away from us or us from them. We may run into them again if the universe has an inside and outside surface like a tube or is donut shaped, a closed tube.

Answer 8

Now this question is exciting, till it rather is proved to be ever increasing, people have faith that the string concept, is recent and meaning there are a number of distinctive dimensions, that could probably propose there's a barrier on the universe preferable to the limbo of the universes!!!

Answer 9

Not true, the discussion is still going on.
It will expand forever? Or will it stop and collapse back in to a new Big Bang?
Everything pedends on the research on the dark matters in the universe....

Answer 10

first - this is a hard physics concept; Einstein and others proved that space is not spherical but curved... it means that the farthest objects in universe can be connected in a surprisingly shorter path....

in such a situation, the "expansion" is not truly in a spherical fashion but in kind of warped space; so expansion and contraction both may take place simultaneously

science does not allow us to think what lies beyond the described curved space.... it is an illogical idea as far as science is concerned and scientists would not answer these questions satisfactorily to laymen....

see: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr1/en/astro/universe/universe.asp

Answer 11

into the extra-universal space. the universe we know is just the stuff in space that is part of the big bang. so it is just the stuff that is getting further and further apart. (matter)The universe it is expanding into is the same as before but now the stuff is expanding. within it.

we artificially declare the part of the universe that contains the stuff we know is the boundry of the "universe" but it is boundless universe to begin with and we are just discovering it.