How many light years is outer space across from beginning to the end?

Question

I remember reading this in a magazine somewhere, i think it was Omni magazine but it said that light in space took a few billion light years to reach the end of space.And where would our starting measurements be taken earth or the beginning of space?

Answer 1

One estimate is 156 billion light years wide.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html

Answer 2

The Big Bang happened 13.5 billion years ago, the most distant observable objects were about 12 billion light years away when the light we see now left them, 12 billion years ago. The Universe has continued to expand for the last 12 billion years so that the apparent size of the Universe should be 13.5x2 plus 12x2 billion years across or 51 billion light years from end to end. Of course since space is wrapped in around itself you would just end up back where you started if you could go fast enough but since the speed of light is the cosmic speed limit and the speed at which the Universe is expanding is increasing, you would never reach the apparent edge of the Universe and after about 30 billion years the distant galaxies would just disappear and you would find yourself all alone with nothing around you.

Answer 3

One problem with the question is that space does not have a "beginning" or "end". You can go as far as you want, as fast as you can (limited of course by the speed of light) and you will never reach anything like an "end": you will simply enter a piece of space that is not observable from earth. The universe can be represented as a sphere 13.7 billion light years in diameter, but that does not mean that there is an edge -- it just means that if you are looking that far out, you are seeing remnants of the big bang.

Answer 4

The big bang occured 13.7 billion years ago, according the most recent, best estimates. This means that the universe seems to us to be 13.7 billion light years from here to the edge, although the observable universe stops a bit short of that (i.e. there was nothing worth looking at in the first few million years after the big bang, and the most distant objects are thus not 13.7 billion light years away, but a bit less)

Answer 5

The universe is believed to be approximately 13.5 billion years old. Assuming that it is expanding in all directions that would make it 27 billion light years across and still expanding into space which is infinite as far as is known. But that of course is just a guess. Kisses Betty.

Answer 6

According to the textbook that I have, we can only see 18 billion light years into space from Earth in any direction that we look. Now, that does not mean that the universe is only 18 billion light years in radius, it just means that in 18 billion years, this is all of the light that has reached our point for us to see.

No amount of technology in our telescopes will allow us to see further…only time can do that.

Answer 7

The solar is mad up of gases, manly hydrogen. with the aid of a technique observed as hydrogen fusion, the solar is able to make extensive quantities of capability. some day the solar will run out of capability and burn out yet for now it continues to be burning. Plus i think of fire dosent prefer only oxygen to burn. as long as a gas or source of capability is attainable to feed it, fire can stay. you will possibly recognize this in case you had payed interest in technological awareness classification in extreme college. Christians: -a million=0 Atheists: a million

Answer 8

That magazine is lying,it is just to make people buy it if you fall on that crap you sure are stupid.Nobody knows exactly

Answer 9

There is no beginning or end. Think about that for a while, a little mind boggling???