where does space end and for those who say it bends back on itself, what is outside of it?

Answer 1

Only God knows the real space... its not comprehensible for a humans mind to work this out.

Answer 2

Ahh...now there's a question we could debate for days on end.

The universe could be finite as a self contained bubble of three dimensional space plus time. It wouldn't need to have an "edge" beyond which nothing existed, because it would loop back around (presumably in some higher order space) like the surface of a bubble.

To use an old parallel:
Suppose there is a train on a circular track. Things are arranged so that the the people on the train can only see forward or backward. Their universe is finite, because there is only a certain length of track, but they will never come to an "edge" of the universe, because it is nicely curled up in a closed loop.
Like I say, this is only one model. There is no real evidence that the universe is like this, but it does fit in with some cosmologists theories.
It is important to remember that sometimes the commonsense notions that work well when we are dealing with medium sized objects don't always apply when we are talking about very small things (ike electrons) or very big things (like the universe).

Also, It does not matter if space ends. No matter how fast you run you can never reach the edge because it is expanding at the speed of light. If you went faster than the speed of light then you would (theoretically) exsist in all points of space at the same time.

I hope this has helped.

Answer 3

This type of question is precisely what separates Science from Philosophy and... dare I say it, faith.

That is, Scientifically speaking, the most we can say about "space" is that which is confirmed by experimental observation. BUT, this is a whole lot! Especially compared to 200, 300 years ago.

The idea that "space" bends back on itself is based on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (GR), a theory which has been validated by experimental observation. Far out or not, having withstood the scrutiny of experiment, it is valid to apply the theory to model other aspects of out "Universe." For example, GR predicted the Universe is expanding, and Hubble discovered this experimentally. Further, GR predicted more exotic objects like Black Holes, which more or less have been discovered (there is no direct evidence, but indirect).

Astronomy and Astrophysics are gathering more and more information all the time about the nature of "space." But so far we only know the "space" we find ourselves in, and no other.

Any concepts of what lies beyond our "space" are merely conjecture, and will have to be proved through observation... to be scientific.

Answer 4

I say space bends back on itself.

And when i say that i mean there is no "outside " of the universe.

I understand your question.

But even if there was an outside , its wholly impossible with the current technology to look beyond the universe

So the models and events outside the universe are irrelevant and can have no observable effect on us and hence must be excluded from consideration since we have no verification of such things.

Its a good question and a frank answer that anyone can give would be " i am not sure" .

Answer 5

Space is a 4 Dimensional Bubble.

It floats in Dimensions 5 through to 14.

It floats along with loads of other 4 Dimensional Universes as a Multiverse

Answer 6

Lets say we experience living in 4 dimensions called space/time created it in the big bang - created (from the point of view of our experience & ability to understand/sense) - from 'nothing'.

Perhaps the characteristics of our universe's big bang also lead to a set of particular forces that interacted with each other & eventually lead to us - our ability to sense the universe is then a consequence our ability to somewhat understand the universe & so survive & reproduce.

Our universe's characteristic forces may be unique to our universe - possibly (I feel probably) there are other universe we cannot possibly sense - possibly also created from singularities.

Now as the universe expands - the big bang is continuing right now - stars are travelling away from each other - space/time is created into this 'nothing' I referred to above.

Now by 'nothing' I mean nothing that we can possibly have any experience of - so I mean we have no idea - we don't know! but it is possibly not the space/time of another larger universe - perhaps we are the only universe with any phenonoma approaching our experience of space/time - or in my mind it could just have no meaning to say what is on the other side - both time or space wise, there may be no space-time beyond our universe. That is there is no meaning in talking about before the big bang - ie the phenomena we experience as time as well as space as integrated as space/time & were created in the big bang in our universe some 13 billions years ago.

So all this leads to understanding that whilst all these scientific models - quantum mechanics / relativity / evolution & so big bang theory are far more predictive of the outcome of any experiment/repeated observation that can be devised to test them than any other models anyone has made up - they are still models, that is human constructs - that is something :

humans have made
that really only exists in human's imagination
that closely predicts how the universe behaves in controlled experiment

So these human constructs may not describe at all what is actually happening but may just be a convenient abstractions that works for the majority of experimental cased but which do not reflect in any way the 'real' nature of the universe we inhabit.

So who knows.

By the way (for those who bring God into this) as far as I am concerned all religion is a human construct as well - ie simply religious ideas - The concepts of God, spirits etc only exists in the human imagination, just like Einstein's theories - if humans were wiped off the planet tomorrow, religious ideas & Einstein's ideas would no doubt go with them!

On a personal note I think that the phenoma we experience evolved / emerged spontateously into what is to our senses on the surface experience/detect as an orderly predicable state but that the universe is fundamentally at the very detailled micro level, beyond our detection, still a chaoic swirl of influences (forces) that overall add up to nothing - all other less consistent universe having died out long ago in a kind of evolution of multipley created universes - hence my feeling that there are other universes of a completely difference sort 'out there' - you now know that by 'out there' I don't mean anything 'out there' spacially or in time!

Hope my answer helps!

Answer 7

Ah, now thats where I believe that 'the watchers' are - on the outside of the known universe. I have written many times that i think we - humanity - the world, is part of a gaint genetic experiment. We are in a tank and outside are the people in the white coats doing the experiments...

Answer 8

Neither time nor space 'end' in a classic Newtonian sense, because the Universe creates its own time and space. So the question is spurious.

Answer 9

I don't think anyone can completely answer this question. We believe by math, mainly, that space is forever expanding. Until we can travel faster than the expantion itself, we will not have that anwer any time soon.

Good Luck

Answer 10

It doesn't end. It's continually expanding outward. What's outside of it? Nothingness. I can't quite wrap my brain around that concept. Guess it would just be more black due to lack of light from a sun.

Have a great day!!!