Why is the universe so big???

Answer 1

Thats a question that physics is still trying to answer.
There are 3 types of theories on how big the universe is and the shape of it. It is either flat, meaning it will always be this large and continue forever. There is the closed ellipse type, meaning the universe started from something, but unfortunatly will end after its reaches its max capacity and starts to shrink again. There is still the hyperbola theory meaning that the universe started at a finite point and is always expanding.

Answer 2

It may be big because, for reasons we don't really understand, it is actually infinite.

The "simple" answer is that the speed of light, which relates distance to time in a fundamental way, is a big number. If space weren't big, time wouldn't be "big" either. Without enough time since the beginning of the Universe, we wouldn't be here to see it. Therefore, the Universe must be old. This, combined with the speed of light, makes it big (at least 40 billion lightyears across, but almost certainly much, much bigger than that).

Answer 3

Because we are so small.

Actually, the universe has had a long time to expand. In this incarnation of it all, the basic four of five rules that turned out this time determined the ratios of the strong force to gravity, the size of the electron versus its (typical) orbital radius around the nucleus, etc. Given only(!) so much mass, the volume of the universe depends on its overall density. Overlook relatively small pockets of enormous density like black holes, and it's all pretty much as sparse as the interstices of the atom.

Answer 4

the whole universe is the biggest thing in the universe. So it is as big as the whole universe.

Answer 5

If you go with the Big Bang theory, the universe is so big for this reason:

All of the mass in existense used to be in one singlular point, called the singlularity. Everything that is currently contained in the universe was contained in this singlular point, it was just an infinitely massive single object. Of course if that single object was everything, then it wasn't an object at all, because it was everything, there was nothing outside of it and it did not float or hover in any medium. It was literally EVERYTHING. But back to the question.

Now take Einstein's famous premise E-MC^2. All of everything was contained in this singularity, so M=EVERYTHING (which is technically an infinate number but is SO BIG that it may as well be thought of a almost an infinate #). So, multiply the mass of everything in existence by the speed of light squared (299,792,458 m / s)^2, and the energy contained in the singularity is REALLY huge, again close to infinate, but still a finite number.

So, you have almost infinate mass in the singluarity with almost iinfinite potential energy. Once something happens to RELEASE that potential energy, the mass EXPLODES randomly in all directions, and the universe starts to expand from a small, dense singularity into a larger and larger, less and less dense universe.

So that is why it is so big. It is all in the equation. If you could somehow figure out how much mass in in the entire universe, then you could calculate how much total potential energy was released in the BIG BANG, and you could approximate how quickly the universe is expanding. They have done this based on appoximations of how quickly other galaxies beyond ours in relation to the galatic center are moving away based on redshift, and determined that the galaxy is expanding at approximately 50 and 100 km/s/Mpc, one Mpc being equivalent to 3.2 million light years.

Now the fun part. Not only is the universe getting LARGER at approximately the rate stated above, but, we have found that this rate is DECREASING, meaning that the rate of expansion is SLOWING DOWN.

This makes sense because in any explosion, although most of the mass is diverted away from the source, a good 25-40% of the mass stays pretty close to the source, meaning that although 60-75% of the mass of the Big Bang has scattered AWAY from the singlularity and formed galaxies and solar systems as they continue to move AWAY from the original center, a large portion of the mass of the universe is still at the center. Moons revolve around planets due to their relative mass, stars revolve around black holes at the center of each galaxy due to their relative mass, galaxies revolve around even more massive black holes at the center of their galaxy neighborhood due to their relative mass, and it is most likely that all of the galaxy neighborhoods still revolve around the massive center of the universe.

Here's the kicker, there was an explosion, everything is moving AWAY from the center of the explosion, BUT there is so much mass still left at the center of the explosion that everything that is shooting outward is SLOWING DOWN due to the gravity of the universal center, meaning that eventually everything will STOP moving away from the center and start moving back towards the center.

Some have theorized that time is an illusion in the way we observe it, and that it is more reasonably thought of as just another dimension that acts just like the other dimensions of length, width, and height, as seen by a set observer (remember, Einstein proved that the dimensions are not objective, they are relative based on the relative posistion and motion of the observer.) That said, it is possible that TIME is really the 4th dimention of HOW FAR WE ARE FROM THE UNIVERSAL CENTER. Per the theory, we would actually percieve time getting progressively SLOWER by fractions of a second each day as the expansion of the universe continues to slow down. People 5000 years ago would have experienced time relatively FASTER than we do today. The earth would still revolve around the earth every 24 hours, just their 24 hours would be less time than our 24 hours. Hard to comprehend without knowing General Relativity, so go check out that theory if you want to learn more.

Anyway, by this theory, eventually when the universe STOPS expanding and starts SHRINKING back towards the center, time would again SPEED up. It can't go backwards any more than an object can be -2 inches long, but it can speed up and slow down just like the pen in your hand can be different lengths depending on who measures it (again, general relativity, look up the POLE IN THE BARN paradox).

So, time could be slowing down for us and eventually speeding up for us until everything colapses back into the same singlularity we had before the big bang. There will then eventualy be another big bang and the whole cycle starts over again, with infinate random possibilities to how it turns out the second time (or maybe we are in the 2nd time, or 2,000,000th time).

Good stuff, huh? Glad I won't be around to see if it is all true, sounds scary!!

Answer 6

Because it's continuing to expand. And has been expanding for about 15 billion years. That would make something already big, even bigger.

Answer 7

Einstein would tell you it's all relative. It's not that it's so big, it's that we're so tiny. Well it is quite big as big things go.

Answer 8

Because if it wasn't big, then everyone would call it a meaverse.

Answer 9

When the world was created, that's the decision that was made.

Answer 10

Compared to what?