Is there a begining or an end to the universe (like borders or boundries)? What's holding it in place?

Question

Is the universe like a piece of paper; with edges, a start and an end. Or is it ongoing? Now, we are in the universe, so what is the universe in? Believe it or not, this is a question I had asked my mom at the age of 6.

Answer 1

There are theories, but nobody really knows. Funny you mentioned the paper, because one serious scientific theory (as mentioned in Brian Greene's book "The Fabric of the Cosmos" is that the universe is flat, but wraps around like a pac-man screen.

Another theory is that it's sphere shaped.

Another saddle-shaped.

Another says that it's all a hologram.

Another says that it is a multi-verse, in which other universes exist outside of our own.

Another says our universe is infinite and has no shape, but there are 10 or 11 (depending on which theory) dimensions wrapped up into microscopic Kalabi-Yau manifolds.

Answer 2

I doubt your mom had an answer. But imagine you took that piece of paper and glued the ends together so that it's like a ball. Now there's no boundary to that piece of paper any more, right? If you are a bug on the piece of paper, and you headed in any direction, you'll never reach any boundary. Get it now? But in fact, even if we were to travel at the speed of light, the universe is expanding faster than we could ever hope to "round the universe" and come back to where we started, even though geometrically that's quite possible.

Anthony S is correct in pointing out that there's a number of different views on the "shape" of the universe, and there's the multiverse, which just complicates things more.

Answer 3

The begining of the universe is from a very big planet,after that the planet explode and become stars,planets,astroids.It is caled the big bang so here's the story

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

And this and other theory that scientist said thet out of the universe have no space,no time,no shape so you cant go there.If you are asking what hapens if we go there the answer is you cant go there because theres no space,no time,and no shape.

Answer 4

Astronomers are still debating this mystery. Some say it goes on forever and it continues to expand. Others say that it is more like a donut and if you go far enough you end up coming back to where you started. Others say that the laws of physics are evolving and given enough time the nature of the universe will completely change.

In other words, nobody knows.

Answer 5

And you still don't know? The universe isn't in anything, and nothing is keeping it in except the gravity at the center of it. Of course, the real question isn't what is keeping it in (because its not doing its job if its trying) but what is forcing it outward at an accelerating rate.

Answer 6

For this answer you must go to the Bible.

In it describes the heavens as going on for eternity. Its boundary cannot be found! Yet it describes G*d's home as being in the "3rd heavens".

It is like G*d, it cannot be described. How does one describe eternity, or having no beginning or no end? This is the mystery of G*d and his unlimited power!

Answer 7

It is still a mystery...but for me,i believe that there is no boundries in the universe...