If the universe is expanding, and we're expanding into something what is it?

Question

That, and if every star is a different universe then whats outside of all these universes and are they going to end up expanding into each other and exploding?

Answer 1

Great question.

The thing is, there isn't any"thing" outside the universe, because that is what the universe is; everything. If you can imagine that light travels at light speed, the furthest away anything can be is as far as it can get at light speed. Since time, space and matter are all so inextricably linked, unless time (ie light) has arrived, there is no "where" for stuff to be. In other words, there isn't anything outside the universe, the universe is simply expanding.

With regard to some of the points made above about the universe shrinking etc, it all depends on a number known as "H-nought". If this is less than one, there isn't enough matter moving fast enough to outwit gravity, and eventually gravity will make everything collapse (the big crunch), and at some time in what we might think of as the future after that, we could have another big bang. If this number is equal to one, the universe will get to a certain size and then stay at that, forever. If greater than one, the universe will continue to expand until the energy is so spread out that the average temperature is so close to zero it might as well be, so called 'heat death' of the universe. Some clever scientists have tried to figure out what this number actually is (by adding up the mass of the universe and working out it's velocity etc) but it's a bit futile because humans will be long gone before anything happens!

Answer 2

You have to try and comprehend absolute nothingness. An explosion on earth doesn't explode into a conveniently placed bag. It continues to expand until the earth's gravity reigns it in. As there is no gravity beyond the big bang explosion, there is nothing to reign it in. Thus we expand forever in all directions, into total emptyness.

The chap above me hasn't an earthly I'm afraid. The Universe has NEVER contracted and if it did fluctuate I fail to see how he can predict that it will happen in 200,000 years. Crazy!

Also, technically "gravity" doesen't really exist (according to Einstein). Instead we have space warp, where everything in the Universe that has a mass twirls everything else in the Universe around itself.

The Big Bang was the beginning of everything, including time, nothing should exist beyond it. But there is a theory that there are multiple universes that make up a Multiverse, and that somehow, light refracting from one of these other universes is what created the Big Bang in the first place.

The problem with all the rocket science theories is that they are just that, theories. Many of these theories turn out to be bogus later down the line as science moves on. True science is really about studying what IS. But the rocket scientists tend to deal a lot in what may be, which is an area of great uncertainty. For example. I see absolutely no reason to accept the modern concepts of "dark matter" and "dark energy". For me these ideas are sheer guesses, and bad guesses at that.

Answer 3

Try thinking about the universe like this; the universe is all of the moments before -now- (all time past), the boundary or edge of the expansion is the moment -now- and everything that is going to happen is the future and doesn't exist yet and so that is what the universe is expanding "into" -- it is expanding into what will be... Space is not just the three dimensions of height, width and length, it is also time -- so we call it the space-time continuum. Now in fact there seem to be other hidden dimensions which are rolled up into themselves and into directions that we cannot even imagine, and which are imperceptible using our existing senses but which we are able to infer by the way that we observe phenomena in the universe interacts. The way that fundamental forces in the universe (weak atomic force, strong atomic force, electromagnetism and gravitation) are related to fundamental particles appear to suggest the existence of as many as 7or more additional dimensions which act as intermediary continuua.

Answer 4

The answer to this question is, we really do not know, although it is dark matter which is expanding our universe like a balloon into nothing. We assume there is only one universe although we are not sure. After the big bang, obviously are universe should expand like any explosion although by now the expansion should be declining. This is where dark matter comes, pushing the universe out. We are expanding into nothing, it is hard to think about but it is absolutly nothing. No light, chemicals, minerals, liquids simply nothing. There is so far no evidence of another universe although if we all did crash we would explode and inevitably perish.

Answer 5

Erm, I'm not sure what you mean by "every star is a different universe". We are only aware of one universe and everything you see exists within it.

The universe as a whole is expanding - but it's not actually expanding "into" anything - it's creating its own space and time as it goes.

There may be other universes besides this one - lots of scientists believe we may just be part of a larger multiverse, but that is only a theory at present, and there is no evidence suggesting it's either right or wrong.

Answer 6

1. It's expanding into nothing. Which I find very hard to get my head around. The alternatives seems to be that it goes on for ever or it is somehow circular: one edge is continuous with the other. Neither of these options is all that more easy to grasp. The whole question tells us more about the limitations of the categorising abilities of our minds than the nature and scale of the actual universe.
2. I don't know about each star being a separate universe. They are stars roughly like our own some with planets around them, some without.

Answer 7

The universe expands into the void, the Ain, nothingness. There are worlds within worlds but they won't expand into each other and explode. Some talk of many universes, but the universe is everything.

Answer 8

It's a difficult concept, but, along with the Universe, time and space was created. Therefore, as the Universe expands, more space is created for it to expand into. Outside the boundary of the Universe there is, literally, nothing.
Told you it was a difficult concept.

Answer 9

stars aren't different universes, there is only one universe (hence the 'uni' bit, meaning 'one'). It's a toughie coz it's impossible to picture it. The universe is expanding. Our part of the universe is expanding into space and space itself is explanding (into nothing) There is nothing outside the universe, it doesn't exist until space takes it up.
Space is linked with time and as time increases so does space itself.

Answer 10

Perhaps there is space but not time outside of our universe. You need matter in order to have time. And if there is no matter, then there is no time.

Perhaps our universe is expanding into extra-universal space.