So if the universe is infinite, expanding and accelerating.......?

Question

Does this mean that eventually it will reach speeds of infinity MPH? Now while that's unpossible, if it has an infinite amount of time and space to accelerate in, the only conclusion is that it would continue to speed up far past the point of light speed.

Which leads me to another question, has any part of the universe been clocked at past the speed of light yet?

Answer 1

Relative specific density of the universe is slightly less than 1.000 and that suggests it is near flat in shape. But there is a bit of curvature from the fact that the relative specific density is not precisely 1.000..... And where there is curvature, there is a radius of curvature. And where there is a radius of curvature, there is a center from where the radii emerge.

So I like to think of our known universe (the 14-15 billion light years in all directions from Earth) as simply a bit of area on the surface of a very large bubble that has been expanding out from its center since the big bang.

The fact that the bubble is accelerating (a) suggests a net force on it because f = Ma and f/M = a where M is the real and virtual mass of the universe, including that part we cannot see because it exists more than 14-15 billion light years away. We cannot see it because light has not been traveling long enough to get to Earth from those extreme distances.

We have seen extreme gravity around dense galaxies bend space (a small volume of the universe) to form so-called gravity lenses. So we know gravity attracts space like it attracts mass. So space has a virtual, if not real, mass.

As it's the total universe (seen and unseen) that is expanding and accelerating, it makes sense to speculate that the net force in f/M = a is the force of gravity. And from f = GMm/R^2, we can further speculate there is a mass m outside our bubble that is pulling it with the net force f from a center to center distance of R. Since that m lies outside our little bubble to pull it outward, we have no clue what it might be. [NB: I'm taking liberties by keeping all this in Euler space, which of course may not exist outside our known universe.]

Alternatively, there may be a sort of anti-gravity pushing from the center of the bubble so that the whole seen and unseen universe is accelerating by gravity pressure (instead of air). And that, to me, suggests anti gravity messengers (anti gravitons) may be still pumping into our universal bubble to keep it accelerating as it expands. In which case, the m in GMm/R^2 would be collocated (R = Plank length) with our bubble universe center, which can easily account for the kind of net force needed to accelerate our total universe.

In any case, current theory suggests a so called "inflationary epoch" a few seconds after the BB when the universe did in fact expand faster than light speed. [See source.] But this does not violate the light speed cap because that cap applies only to real mass and time. Meanwhile, at greater than light speed, the universe does most of its expansion; so that the bubble is almost the size it is today in the first few seconds after the big bang.

Photons do not even appear until later after the universe cools down a bit more. So, until the universe is almost as big as it is today, light hasn't even begun to flow through to where our Earth will form some billions of years later. Which accounts in large part why we do not see very much of the total universe. And as one answer put it, there may very well be parts of the total universe moving at faster than light speed, but we haven't seen it and I'm not sure how we would see it even if we were looking right at it.

Re your allegation that the universe is infinite or, at least, expanding to infinity...that does not seem likely. First of all, there was a beginning...the big bang. And that finite beginning suggests a finite ending...the alpha and the omega.

Second, the universe is positive entropic, which simply means it is winding down. It will end when the last bit of useful energy is converted to entropy...at which time, theory has it, the universal temperature will be K = 0 degree Kelvin...absolute zero.

Now don't get me wrong, there may very well be a mega universe outside ours that is in fact infinite. There may even be multiple parallel mega universes as some string theorists speculate. But our little bubble is doomed to run out of gas and die with a whimper. It is not infinite.

Answer 2

The universe is a finite entity,one day it will come to an end.
It expanded at an accelerated rate for the first 30 billionths of a second,reached the speed of light and continued to expand radially at the speed of light.
The universe has a maximum size so eventually it will have to come to a stop.
The farthest galaxies resolved by the Hubble do not exist to-day.
The red shift may be a misinterpretation of what we see appearing to be an accelerated recession
The engine that drives the galactic center reduces the density of space causing a red shift to emitted light.
The galaxy would seem to be accelerating away no matter what side it was viewed from.
The consensus is that space is expanding but space is a quantum entity and the quanta cannot expand.
The density of space would diminish as it expanded but it would eventually reach the minimum where it could no longer exist.

Answer 3

The universe is not infinite. If it were, where could it expand into? Infinite means endless or boundless. I don't think the human mind can handle levels of infinity. Let's leave most of the universe as a mystery, what do you say?
According to relativity, nothing can exceed the speed of light. But how do we know that there aren't some kind of quanta that can go faster than light? We have no chance of observing every nook and cranny of the universe, so how do we know there isn't a system or galaxy or even "dark matter" out there moving above relativistic speeds?
There could be civilizations that are invisible altogether, able to travel at almost infinite speeds. Who knows?

Answer 4

I truthfully have self belief there is not any "appropriate way" to conventionalize something it truly is infinite. i've got not got self belief the universe is infinite - infinite is a mathematical term and would not persist with, in actuality, to something all of us recognize of exterior of arithmetic. working example, if there have been a limiteless sort of stars in a limiteless universe, the sky could be infinitely dazzling - the two day and evening. this is because of the fact, no remember how far-off or dim the celebrities' easy may be, there could be a limiteless volume of them, and as a result, a limiteless volume of sunshine. attempt this thought: area is 'no longer something' without products - that's basically the gap between those products that make it tangible. because of the fact the universe expands, and that's increasing, the planets and stars are literally starting to be area. And 'no longer something' can genuinely be infinite - because of the fact even a limiteless volume of 'no longer something' remains 'no longer something'. evaluate a field with a appropriate vacuum - genuinely no longer something interior. It includes 'no longer something.' Now upload a pair of marbles to the field and now we something very tangible - we've the relative distance between those 2 products. upload yet another marble and flow the field around and we've the two relative action and distance between the products - and each and each marble can legitimately evaluate itself at relax and verify the motions and velocities of the different 2 - initiating to sound commonplace?

Answer 5

In Einsteins undiscrete universe (continuous) you can continue accelerating and get closer and closer to the speed of light withut passing it.
Consider the real numbers from 0 to 1 are the allowed velocities while 1 is the speed of light. You can always get a number closer to 1 regardless of whatever number yu choose between 0 and 1 (note 0.9recurring is equal to 1)

Answer 6

General Relativity only prohibits objects from moving faster than c from the perspective of a local reference frame. That means commuting and communication cannot exceed c. Remote parts of the universe can theoretically have their distance from us increase at a rate greater than c due to universal expansion, we can just never observe them. That is, they are not part of the universe which is visible. And since expansion appears to be accelerating, the number of galaxies in the visible universe decreases over time.

Answer 7

Under special relativity, the meaning of "acceleration" changes somewhat. Instead of referring to in increase in speed, it refers to an increase in momentum, and unlike Newtonian physics, momentum in relativity is not proportional to speed. So a particle can still have any amount of momentum and kinetic energy, but its speed can never be greater than the speed of light.

Answer 8

Thou shalt not exceed the speed of light. It depends on your point of reference. You need to study Einstein's theory of relativity, but nothing can exceed the speed of light. Even if you're on a spaceship traveling at half the speed of light and you shine a flashlight forward, the light will still move at the speed of light (to you and to someone standing on the side).