how can it be endless? it's hard to imagine.
2007-01-07 15:53:11 · 6 answers · asked by nodamnway 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
i thought it ended in new jersey
2007-01-07 16:08:12 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The universe is extremely large but it is not infinite in size.
It is easy to prove that if the univers were infinite and it had always existed that the night sky would be as bright as looking at the sun. It therefore must be that one of those two things is not true. Either the universe is not infinite or there was a beginning of time. It is also possible that both are false. The Universe is finite and time began at some definite time in the past. I don't know enough to prove that both are false but that is what others say.
2007-01-08 00:03:59 · answer #2 · answered by anonimous 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Let's do a thought experiment.
Picture yourself standing on a flat surface that extends as far as you can see.
To the eye, it seems perfectly flat; but when you look way out through your telescope you see a globe-shaped object that looks sunken into the surface. Its a planet and the tremendous weight of its mass has made the surface bend.
Your telescope helps you find more planets and beyond them are stars. Your distant flat surface now looks more like a cheese with big dimples and depressions in it. And when you focus on collections of stars (called galaxies of course) ; your once-flat surface looks more like the twisted folds of some giant's bed after a rough night.
And as you try to make out the farthest galaxies you begin to see something like a horizon. Its rough and twisted at the edge but nonetheless its a horizon.
Finally, you say to yourself, there's the edge of the Universe!
Oops! Then there are even more galaxies beyond the curving horizon! Perhaps this bending of the surface of things is so great that all of it is bent like a big, slow arc. And that arc continues and continues and continues.
Picture it. An arc that curves slowly but continuously; it would curve on and on as it very imperceptibly turned back to its point of origen.
The arc is so big and so subtle it really looks flat for almost "forever", sort of.
So the universe is like an incredibly large, expanding bubble with stars and galaxies just inside the boundaries of the surface.
Yes, the thickness of the universe is amazingly huge; but that thickness is like surface of a soap bubble compared to its "inner" and "outer" dimensions!
And there is no end because, like the Earth, a globe has no "end". It has a horizon, but there is no end, is there?
2007-01-08 00:28:01 · answer #3 · answered by T K 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There is only ONE end to your universe. I don't mean in time, but in space. That one end is where YOU are right now. It is from where you experience your universe. If you travel "through" your universe, that end, the end which is where you are, stays where you are. You will continue to experience the universe from where you are. It is a bit like chasing the end of a rainbow. You can try, but you will never get there, because there is no "other end" of your universe.
I only have one end to MY universe too, and that is where I am, but it is different from YOUR end of YOUR universe. You and I can never share the same end to the universe, because our universes are different.
I hope this helps a little bit!
2007-01-08 01:18:41 · answer #4 · answered by Mez 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Scientists say there is strong evidence that the universe is expanding. That would mean it must have boundries, though they keep moving outward.
2007-01-08 00:16:27 · answer #5 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dont imagine it then
2007-01-08 00:02:31 · answer #6 · answered by kt 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋