if the universe is expanding?

Question

what is it expanding into?

Answer 1

Nobody knows the answer to that, cause we can't see outside our own universe bubble.

Answer 2

That is the ultimate question.

Knowbody knows. It must be expanding into something but what? and that something it is expanding into where does that end??

Prof S Hawkins and sir R Penrose have spent years exploring this. The problem is that all these universal laws are based on mathematics - maths developed by us IN RELATION TO OUR UNIVERSE. In other words, before the big bang and the void we are expanding into all mathematics breaks down.

When you look at old pictures depicting the big bang, there is God with his hand and a perfect cone is extending from it. Now that perfect cone has been altered into a rounded dish shape on Gods hand depicting the fact that the exact point of the big bang can not be found.

Answer 3

The universe will continue to expand untill gravity will pull it back to the where the big bang happend or most likely continue to expand until it won't be able to create stars anymore.

Answer 4

This has got to be the most frequently asked Astronomy question on this site.

The modern view of space is that it not simply "absence," but is a sort of fabric that has its own geometry. Think of raisin bread. the rasins represent the objects in space, while the bread is space itself. The expansion of space is like the bread "rising." The raisins get farther apart when that happens.

It is possible that the "bread" is infinite in extent. Even in that case, you can imagine the bread rising and the raisins getting farther apart. The bread isn't expanding "into" anything--because it already takes up all of space--and yet it's still expanding.

But that's not the only possibility. It is also possible that the "bread" is NOT infinite. The weird geometry of spacetime says that space may be finite, yet not have any borders. It is hard for us to imagine a 3-dimensional thing that has such a property, but that's just because of the limits of our imagination. The closest analogy is to try to imagine a 2-dimensional surface that has a limited number of square miles and yet has no boundaries. That's easier for us to imagine, because we live on such a surface (the surface of the earth). The modern view of spacetime (for the last 100 years) is that 3-dimensional space can be like that too--a finite number of cubic miles, but no "edges".

Even in that case, the "raisin bread" analogy holds. In this scenario, there's a finite amount of bread. But there is no "outside" of the bread. If you sent a little raisin-spaceship through the bread, you'd never hit the "edge," you'd just end up back where you started. And still, the bread can "expand," making the raisins get farther and farther apart. But the bread isn't expanding "into" anything.

Answer 5

OK...

Imagine this... the universe, if you take it as a thing... something that (if you had big enough hands) you could hold in your hands.

A 3-dimentional object, a solid, albeit a very dispersed one.

With me so far?

Now, if this solid needed to get bigger it would have to expand into something else that was 3-dimentional...

Right?

The gaps between everything in the universe would have to get bigger.

However, because the Universe is all there is, there is nothing 3-dimentional for it to expand into. Which is where the theory of multi-dimentional curved space comes from.

To experiment with this yourself - get a balloon, and half inflate it... then draw little pictures of galaxies on it (or dots.. either is good)

Now, here's the leap of faith - you have to imagine that the 3-d object that you're holding (a balloon) is in fact a curved 2-d object (a flat plane curved through a 3rd dimension that the people living in one of your dot-galaxies could not perceive)

So, you're stood there with the universe in your hand (minus a dimension) .

What're you gonna do?

You blow - obvious really... The balloon inflates and all of the galaxies get further apart (and get bigger - but that's just a side effect - if our dot-galaxies had a little black-hole at their centre to keep them nice and tight this wouldn't happen)

The balloon Universe is expanding into the next dimension.. But it, itself, is endless ?

Geddit?

No?

Nevermind - took Einstien a while too - Made his hair go white too..

Answer 6

It's a misnomer. Think of it this way. The universe is another name for all the matter. By the universe expanding, what they mean is that all that matter is expanding throughout empty space. Think of a fireball. The fire is the universe expanding through the air (empty space).

Answer 7

For the 1000th time this question has been asked, the universe isn't expanding INTO anything -- it's space itself that's expanding.

Answer 8

Since the universe is infinite in size it cannot actually get bigger or smaller.

If you define the universe as "all the matter and energy", then it does appear to have a finite size, and it does appear to be expanding, however since we don't know what the universe really IS (and never will) the question is moot.

Answer 9

expanding into time.
More info university physics.

Answer 10

According to scientist, it like a rubber-band and expanding until it reach it limited and collapse and boom everything is gone. However, I don't have time to worry about it.