How Far Is The Edge of Universe As Measured By Background Microwave Radiation?

Answer 1

The edge of the OBSERVABLE universe is about 13.7-billion light years away from us. The spooky thing is that no matter where you are in the universe, that observable edge will remain at 13.7-billion light years. The important thing to understand is that the observable universe and The universe are two different things. The first is defined strictly by the speed of light. The expansion velocity of the universe increases by some 70 km/sec for each 1-million parsecs farther out we look. It follows that at some point the velocity of spatial expansion will exceed the speed of light, and we can never get any information from there. Incidentally, this f.t.l. velocity isn't prohibited by relativity because it's space that's expanding that fast, not mass moving through it.

The bottom line is that we don't know if the universe has an 'edge,' but the most recent observations of the CMBR strongly suggests that there is none, but that the universe will continue to expand indefinitely.

Answer 2

you really can't explain that question in terms of miles or anything like that, but instead through time..they know roughly it has been around for about 13-16 billion years. so, thats saying that the furthest things we can detect in the universe are coming about ~15 billion light years away..meaning that it took like 15 billion years to get from there, to here. so, saying that, we know its not any YOUNGER than that, but the estimates are still pretty good. but, in a nutshell, approximately 15 billion light years away is the edge. but, getting technical, our universe is always expanding infinitely. we have a finite, but unbounded universe. so it is always growing as time moves on, and not slowing down either...its actually speeding up

Answer 3

The universe has no edge just as it has no center.

Answer 4

Read 'Wrinkles in Time' by George Smoot and you'll begin to understand how very silly that question is ☺

Doug