If the universe and therefore time came into being, could it have started at all places at once?
2007-02-07 07:33:45 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
This is a good question.
There is nothing we know of in current physics that constrains the large-scale structure of space-time. Presumably the Universe could be infinite and time finite, but that's not the way the Universe appears to be.
Going backwards in time to the Big Bang, the classical equations of General Relativity lead to a singularity at time zero, so in the formalism of General Relativity time started then. This may, however, be an artifact of our not really understanding physics back at the beginning of the Big Bang, and not having a "Theory of Everything" that unifies gravity and quantum mechanics. The Big Bang may have come from some other, earlier state of matter.
The Big Bang probably was not infinite in size, but the material involved in the Big Bang was huge---billions of times bigger than the Universe we can see today. We can only see the part of the Universe that is within our event horizon, about 20 billion lightyears away. Beyond that is much more of the Universe, but we may never get to see it---Dark Energy may expand it away before we come into causal contact. Beyond the region of the Big Bang (about 10^23 lightyears across), there may be other regions, extending to infinity. We don't know, and we may never know. The part of the Universe that is knowable to us may forever be finite.
At present, there is no reason to believe time will come to an end. The Universe we can know will fade out and thin out, and all sources of energy will disappear, but time will go on.
2007-02-07 07:52:11 · answer #1 · answered by cosmo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it is highly likely that time will continue to pass for an infinite amount of time for the universe as a whole. However time will not likely continue for Earth or the Solar System as the Sun will definitely reach a point of expanding outward and then collapsing inward basically reducing the solar syatem to ashes and then ice for whatever is left.
Rereading your question, I do not think there is any correlation that, If space is infinite in expanse, then time will continue infinitely as well. I believe they are distinct matters.
2007-02-07 07:44:07 · answer #2 · answered by KingGeorge 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, I'd like to believe that space and time are infinite, but there is the "collapsing universe" theory, where everything goes back into a "big crunch" and then the big bang starts all over again.
2007-02-07 15:41:31 · answer #3 · answered by DavidausZueri 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If space and time are infinite though, they couldn't have a beginning or an end. They're like a circle, no beginning and no end. Yeah, I don't understand it either.
2007-02-07 07:42:05 · answer #4 · answered by Alabaster Finch 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Space-time is afinite entity
It started a very short time after tims zero and evolved to what we experience to-day.
2007-02-07 08:26:47 · answer #5 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Time cannot exist without matter. As long as matter exists, time will exist.
2007-02-07 07:42:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, probably. Earth might not be, the way we're going with it, but time probably is.
2007-02-07 07:41:27 · answer #7 · answered by AnnaBelle 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋