the universe is expanding right...but were is it xpanding into....as in if we say gas is xpanding....we quickly follow it up by saying it is xpandin in room....so like the room in the example...were is universe xpanding into??
2007-02-02 02:00:19 · 5 answers · asked by sh 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
nobody knows,
and by looking out into the universe and examining that it is expanding is really saying that it did expand one time, millions, billions, trillions of years ago because we are looking back in time.
it could be contracting and we would never know it because of the time it takes the information to reach us for intrepretation is so long.
there are several theories out there, Stephen hawking has a couple books that are somewhat easy to read without extensive physics and cosmology education.
2007-02-02 02:09:56 · answer #1 · answered by fighterace26 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't know. Maybe someday we'll find that the edge of the universe is colliding with another universe, expanding in our direction -- like when you blow up two balloons, and they run into each other while their expanding. Maybe the universe isn't the totality of existence; maybe it just another link to the chain of discoveries: Earth is part of the Solar System, which is part of the Milky Way, which is part of a small cluster of galaxies, which is part of a super-cluster of galaxies, which is part of the so called "Universe", which is part of ... People talk about the theory that things are infinitely made of smaller particles, but you seldom hear them talk about the other end of that theory's spectrum: things are infintely made up of larger things. Or maybe it is in a big room, and all of the sudden it will crash into the "walls" of the "room". No one knows and will probably ever know. And if we ever do manage to live long enough to see it, I'm thinking the answer will be more mysterious and baffling as the question -- no matter how advanced our species gets.
Also, Big Bang theorists have assumed until recently that -- according to what has been observed about the stars and their characteristics -- the Universe's rate of expansion would eventually decrease as it begins to collapse upon itself like a super-massive star. It would do this until it reached the point of too much compactness (the size of a single atom), that a new big bang would occur. But recently (a few years ago), I heard on the news that an observation of the rate of universal expansion depicted that the rate of expansion was actually increasing, instead. The only explanations I can fathom are that something is pulling on the edge of the Universe, or something at the center of the Universe is still exerting an outward force (which also begs the question as to whether there is an expanding sphere of nothingness at the center of the Universe as everything expands away from it, or is more mass being dispersed from the center, which would explain the increase in the rate of universal expansion).
2007-02-02 11:23:30 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This question is a matter of opinion. I believe that the universe is expanding into infinity. There are no barriers preventing the expansion unless you believe that a deity is controlling the universe's expansion.
2007-02-02 10:22:31 · answer #3 · answered by Belru Tytor 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
THere are thousands of pages with this question and answer:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=what+is+outside+the+universe%3F&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
2007-02-02 10:16:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothingness..
2007-02-02 10:59:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋