Is the Universe expanding, cause I thought it was infinite? and if it is finite, what is beyond?

Answer 1

IS THE UNIVERSE EXPANDING, CAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS INFINITE? Edwin Hubble (famous astronomer) discover that all the galaxies are receeding from us. the speeds of the receeding galaxies could be measured spectroscopically by using the Doppler effect. i.e. the light from the galaxies were Red shifted on the spectrograph which means they moving away, if they were blue shifted it would mean they moving towards us and if they were white the galaxies would be stationary.
there is other proof aswell such as 'Cosmic background microwave radiation'(CBMR) which dates back to the 'hot big bang' I use the word 'Hot' because the universe was really hot at the beginning and due to the expansion it has cool down. the temp. can be measure by CBMR which is all around us in space.
hence as the universe expands the temperature of CBMR cools.
as for the universe being infinite is debatable. considering that the universe had a beginning (big bang) which everything expanded from, logic dictates that there most be and ending. i.e the 'big crunch' the opposite to the big bang or super black holes eat up the all the material in the universe and died off leaving nothingness. there is many other theories each one as bleak as the last.
AND IF IT IS FINITE WHAT IS BEYOND?
i personally believe the universe is finite, before the big bang there was nothingness no matter, no space and no time nothing existed until the big bang. so everything is within universe and outside there is nothingness. but quantum mechanics has a interesting theory on 'nothingness' and this how it goes,''even nothingness was around so long that it started to decay as it broke down it started to boil which in turn form billions of expanding bubbles, here is the crazy part each one of them expanding bubbles is a universe''. so you could argue outside our universe they are other universes. of course these are theories and until something better comes along its all we have.

try out the books below for more detail explanations

Answer 2

Universe is not expanding and there is no end of it. It's like the time. It's a measure we have fixed for our own use. Like it has no beginning and no end as well, infinite...

Same way, we are still away in developing very large mirror space telescope, which would be capable of watching the deepest in the universe. Question still remains constant that we currently have no capability in launching such a huge telescope in the outer space. All scientists had projected different equations on the size of the universe based on human capabilities of that time. Hence, those thoughts should be consider as a platform for the current astronomy and our current capabilities should be applied to the next generation astronomy. It is also the fact that this equation about the universe will remain as a question mark, because our calculations are based on speed of light, which may not be enough to determine the size of the universe. So, no perfect answer can be given to the question you have raised, possibly at this time.

Answer 3

Both are correct. The universe is expanding and it is infinate. here is how it works. Imagine a point on the earth. say new york. Now imagine you have an airplane that will never run out of gas. You take off from new york, you can fly around the world forever and never run into a wall or barier that marks the end of the world. So technically the world is infinate ( from a geomatric point of veiw). Now imagine the earth is hollow, and we are living inside of it. It would be like living inside of a big bubble gum bubble. It is infinate because you coudl travel along its edge and never reach a wall, but it can still expand.
Sience Does not know what is beyond the expanding universe and it recognizes that. That is why the catholic church doesnt mind scientists teaching this. It leaves whatever is outside of the universe room for heaven and hell.

Answer 4

Sorry Azure - the universe is NOT infinite. If it is expanding continually (which has been demonstrated) then it is bigger today than it was yesterday - therefore can never be described as infinite.

The universe is finite - however all space and time is confined within it, so it does literally go on forever. From our perspective there are no boundaries because of the curvature of space-time. However - it is not infinite. Very few people have any real understanding of that word. Infinite is not just another name for very, very big.

Answer 5

Static and Expanding Models of the Universe
In 1917 Albert Einstein proposed a model of the universe based on his new general theory of relativity. By considering time as a fourth dimension, he showed that gravitation was equivalent to a curvature of this four-dimensional space. His solution indicated that the universe was not static but must be expanding or contracting. The expansion of the universe had not yet been discovered, so Einstein postulated the existence of a force of repulsion between galaxies that counterbalanced the gravitational force of attraction. This introduced a "cosmological constant" in his equations, resulting in a static universe. He therefore missed a chance to predict the expansion of the universe by introducing an arbitrary constant. Einstein later called this the "biggest mistake of my life."

Nonstatic models of the universe were developed in 1917 by the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter, in 1922 by the Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann, and in 1927 by the Belgian abbé, Georges Lemaître. The de Sitter universe solved Einstein's relativistic equations for an empty universe, so that gravitational forces were not important. Friedmann's solution depended directly on the density of matter in the universe and is the currently accepted model of the universe. Lemaître also worked out a solution to Einstein's equation, but he is better known for having introduced the idea of the "primeval atom." He stated that galaxies are fragments that have been ejected by the explosion of this atom, resulting in the expansion of the universe. This was the beginning of the big bang theory of the origin of the universe (see below).

The fate of the Friedmann universe is determined by the average density of matter in the universe. If there is relatively little matter in the universe, the mutual gravitational attraction among the galaxies will slow the recessional velocities only slightly, and the universe will expand forever. This would result in a so-called open universe that is infinite in extent. If, however, the density of matter is above a critical value, now estimated at 5 × 10-30 g/cu cm, the expansion will slow to a halt and reverse to contraction, ending in the total gravitational collapse of the entire universe. This would be a "closed" universe that is finite in extent. The fate of this collapsed universe is uncertain, but one theory is that it would explode again, producing a new expanding universe, which would again collapse, and so on ad infinitum. This model is called the pulsating, or oscillating, universe.

Hope I was helpful!

Happy Holidays! =]

Answer 6

Do you hear, what Einstein said, the light bend due to the gravity of the stars and galaxies, but no one think the light will also affected by a microscopic quantity, if the vacuum is perfectly absence of matter then there is no chance of bending the light, but the vacuum contains the matter itself, then the energy form the light will affected by the vacuum to gain the energy, so this why the dark energy formed when the whole vacuum absorb the complete light, but our surrounding vacuum is just alter the path of the light in very small value, near to 0 but not zero, as the vacuum is large and its deviation is large because of the large number of matter, so this is the actual red shift, but they were thinking the far away galaxies are moving away from us very fast, so the universe is expanding and it is infinite. you consider the escape velocity of the black hole, it does not even pass the light to go out of it, due to its force, like this so many black holes and so many galaxies are there in universe, if you put the mass of the universe and the radius of the universe as a finite quantity then you will get the escape velocity is very large it may even more than 100000 times the speed of light, as our scientists saying that our galaxies are moving with a speed nearly of 552 km/s, but the escape velocity is more than the light, where these matter try to go out of the universe, is this possible for them, where will the expand? big bang says the big ball explode, I will accept that, but at that time all the galaxies are share the equal force, then all must go with the same speed, if they differ, they differ in small amount. I think our universe is having boundary like our sun solar system as our galaxies, but no one will accepting this, just they are in the infinite quantity. Think yourself.

Answer 7

The Universe is infinite and still expanding, it is still moving outwards from the force of the Big Bank. The bodies of other planets are stars are going further away from us. At some point, they will slow down, stop, and all come back in closer to us like any reaction to an explosion. As far as we know, it's infinite. And if it is finite, no one has any idea what is beyond that.

Answer 8

It expands at the speed of light in all directions ever since the big bang. Beyond that you have overtaken light and time itself. You will go to a point in space-time before the universe existed. It is not infinite (it contains 1000 Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million, Million atoms but it could expand into infinity.

Answer 9

I feel others have answered this satisfactorily so I wont attempt a long thorough response - let me just ask the questioner to be very suspicious of the foolish people who have responded to say 'yes its infinite and its expanding' which is (as should be clear to anyone) a blatant contradiction in terms.

Answer 10

the universe is expanding and is infinite without bound. if you somehow could exceed the rate at which it was expanding you would eventyaly end up back where you started since space id curved. think of the universe as an expanding baloon with a bunch of dots on it. as the baloon expands all the dots will move away from eachother and if you start making a line around the baloon your marker will end up back where it started.