the universe?

Question

If you believe in the big bang theory they say the universe is always expanding...if this is true...what is it expanding into??

twokay i think you missed the point...it has to be expanding into something

Answer 1

The Universe creates its own time and space as it expands, so your question has no meaning.

Answer 2

"What is the Universe expanding into?
This question is based on the ever popular misconception that the Universe is some curved object embedded in a higher dimensional space, and that the Universe is expanding into this space. This misconception is probably fostered by the balloon analogy which shows a 2-D spherical model of the Universe expanding in a 3-D space. While it is possible to think of the Universe this way, it is not necessary, and there is nothing whatsoever that we have measured or can measure that will show us anything about the larger space. Everything that we measure is within the Universe, and we see no edge or boundary or center of expansion. Thus the Universe is not expanding into anything that we can see, and this is not a profitable thing to think about. Just as Dali's Corpus Hypercubicus is just a 2-D picture of a 3-D object that represents the surface of a 4-D cube, remember that the balloon analogy is just a 2-D picture of a 3-D situation that is supposed to help you think about a curved 3-D space, but it does not mean that there is really a 4-D space that the Universe is expanding into. "

Answer 3

According to the big bang theory, if the universe expanded from a small(perhaps infinitesimal) volume gravitational forces will attempt to pull it back together. So potential energy keeps increasing while kinetic energy decreases. So there will be an overall temperature decline overtime.
The big bang would've been hot and dense and the above activity would be cooling it down. So as the kinetic energy decreases the gravitational attraction between masses will counter the expansion, thereby reducing its rate.
Accordingly there would be a 'critical density' where the universe will start to collapse once more.
So either the expansion will be infinite or the gravitational forces will overcome the decreasing kinetic energy of the expansion and bring the universe to a state of critical density at which it'll start rolling back into what once was.

Hope this helps!

Answer 4

Where's Stephen Hawking when you need him? There are quite a few theories on this, I believe. One that it is expanding, and Id assume into an area which becomes part of the universe with its properties. Secondly, I heard it may reach a point when its start to contract (ie that gravity will eventually attract all the mass back into the centre), which would make for interesting times in the universe. I believe it would reverse a lot of the universal qualities we take for granted.

Answer 5

As space is a vacuum of nothing but remants of the big bang (i.e. Galaxys, dust, and maybe dark matter if we could find the pesky stuff). this would mean that the universe is expanding into a infinty of space, which is a just a vacuum of nothing until the universe expands into it filling it with something.

Sorry very vague, I am trying to write a scientific theroy for everybody to understand.

Answer 6

This boggles the brain, as the universe has to be contained in something...right. This is the BIG question scientists want to answer and yet can't . When I asked a friend about this some time ago it freaked her out, she'd never thought of this before. I mean we are contained on the planet and the planet is contained in the universe so what is the universe contained in, reminds me of those dolls, where you have another doll hidden in the next and so forth. Many people are sceptical of magic but I believe that our whole exsistance to some extent is magical, what created the universe after all and whats it inside, I think scientists try to think too logically when the answer may not be one that is deemed logical. We have to think outside the box, prehaps in the future it will be figured out but I think there are some things that are supposed to remain a mystery and this is one of them, prehaps there is another universe beyond this one, anybodys guess or theory is as good as mine.

Answer 7

oh yes the big bang theory is believable! its expanding and expanding but i dunno into wat!
read this:-
Representation of the universe according to inflationary cosmology.
The Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter and in all directions.
In 1927, the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was the first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. His proposal came after observing the red shift in distant nebulas by astronomers to a model of the universe based on relativity. Years later, Edwin Hubble found experimental evidence to help justify Lemaître's theory. He found that distant galaxies in every direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance.

The big bang was initially suggested because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery.

Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequentially, leaving a number of tough, unanswered questions.

Answer 8

i'm not saying i believe in the big bang theory, cos after all, itsexactly that innit, a - t h e o r y ,
but "if" it is expanding, i presume its expanding into tomorrow, as opposed to yesterday?

Answer 9

ok, one i do not believe in evolution, and i don't believe why anyone would, but that's not important, the universe is expanding insto galaxies and solar systems, but its done, we are not seeing changes in the rotatuion of planets, or a change in the gravity on us or other planets, the world and universe is done expanding.

Answer 10

i looked at people's answers. very interesting question and responses. i would like to offer thus:

the universe, all its properties, space, time, matter, energy, are known to us because they exist as things we can detect, investigate and analyse. we can write equations to predict there behavior in the future, based on our observations in the past. Now consider that there are forms of existence not known to us. we cannot measure. to all intents and purposes these DO NOT actually exist. One of these none existent things i would think, is what the universe is expanding into.

for the simple reason that we cannot detect it, measure it, nor observe its behaviour..... what do you think?