does our universe have an dead end?

Question

our universe is unspeakable, it may have an ending,corner or just a blank space. i realy like to learn more about our universe.

Answer 1

I remember someone asking a teacher this back in year 5. They said that if there is an end, then what's beyond that end is also part of the universe. Logically then, there is no end. But then there are scientists who argue that there is a point after which time and space doesn't exist or something...

Answer 2

The universe defines our space-time. It is meaningless to talk about space beyond the universe - it doens't exist. This all stems from the "Standard model" in which the universe is created from a point containing all the matter and energy there will ever be in an event called the Big Bang. This point also contained all of space-time. Now as this explosion occurred, the energy contained in the point expanded and hence space-time expanded. As the expansion continued, some of the radiation created elementary particles and as cooling and expansion continued, matter kept aggregating so atoms, molecules, and eventually stars and planets were formed.

Now the theory predicts three outcomes - continuous expansion in which the univeres keeps moving apart; an eventual stopping of expansion in which the universe dies a "heat death"; and a slow down and reversal of the exspansion in which the universe returns to the initial state in a big crunch. Recent observations indicate more acceleration in the expansion than the standard model would predict and this has been attributed to dark energy. There is also more mass in the universe than we see in astronomical observations and this unseen mass is called dark matter.

Another aspect of the standard model is, if you head off into the universe in any direction and travel long enough, you will return to your starting point. It is analogous to being on the surface of a ballon. Taking the analogy a little further imagine the balloon being inflated while you travel along the surface - if you travel fast enough, you can get back to your starting point.

Hope that helps. Some popular books on cosmology or Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" would be good to read.

Answer 3

lets put it in perspective.

Does the Earth have an edge? or dead end? Of course not, you say, the Earth is round. Go far enough, and you will eventually end up in the same spot.

How could an ancient person know that the Earth was round? As far as he knew, the Earth was flat as a pancake. So he too, wondered what the edge of the universe was. He might have envisioned the world as a big plate on the back of the turtle, with the sky being a blanket over it, and stars being holes in the sky showing heaven.

He couldn't possibly have known that the Earth was simply a gigantic sphere, which appeared flat from his perspective, nor that the stars were in fact unbelievably large balls of gas and plasma billions of miles away. In the same way, we probably do not know the truth about the overal universe.

I personally believe that the universe is a 4-D sphere: if you keep travelling far enough in one direction, you will eventually end up in the same spot, the same way that it happens on Earth. However, even I admit that at best, it is a "working model" of the universe, subject to change the moment more conclusive data presents itself to observation.

Answer 4

Let me be the first to offer to help you go out there.

We cannot see the absolute limits of the universe. We aren't even sure that the universe, as we know it, can exist without matter to give the universe substance or "fabric".

The limits of our observations tell us that the universe is 14 billion years old because we can detect matter by visible and non-visible radiation that is 14 billion light-years away from what we perceive as the core location of the original "Big Bang".

Recommend you check out The Elegant Universe. Get the DVD and the companion book.

Answer 5

sorry but ye cant. no one cant and i dont think anyone would ever be able to tell whether the universe is finite or not. i believe that the universe started an infinite amount of time ago, when its temperature was absolute zero and its temperature has been increasing since then. as it grew, it grew infinitely to its present self and this universe will continue to grow till there is no mass left and the temperature of the universe approaches infinity.

Answer 6

Scientists say that if the universe continues to expand, it will eventually disperse into nothingness. Even black holes will eventually evaporate. All this will take about a google years or so.

Answer 7

from my islamic perspective, everything has an end in this life, including the universe. I am sure, somehow, billion of light years from us, is the end of our universe. Maybe we will never be able to answer to this question.

Answer 8

the way i see it, if and when we ever reach the end of the universe and go through it, our molecular structure will cease to exist and we will disolve.

Answer 9

Your universe is the smallest of them all.And yes there is an end.

Answer 10

Ofcourse everything has an end- afterall we are mortals