is the universe infinite?

Answer 1

No.

It is 150 billion light years wide. Thats 1.419079 *10^24 km.
It is 15.8 billion years old.

The universe is spherical. Think of it as a balloon and we're living in it. It is expanding...but the rate of expansion is decreasing due to the forces of gravity in it thats pulling all the mass it contains closer together. Scientists believe that the universe will someday stop expanding and start to contract.

What is the universe expanding into???? What is it displacing as it expands???

Nobody knows. If it is expanding into nothing then that implies that empty space, the thing that we thought was nothing, is not actually nothing.

Answer 2

The universe is a quantum entity so it must be finite.
The Hubble constant says the universe is in an accelerated state of expansion.
This doesn't make sense,it must have a maximum size.
Infinity is a mathematical concept and has no place in reality.
The universe is an incident that began some time in the past and eventually it will go out of existence and enter a state of eternal nothing,an incident that happens once and will never happen again.

Answer 3

assuming ours is the only universe (there are multiverse theories), that's a great question, but a key problem in being able to answer it is that astronomers & cosmologists are prevented from 'seeing' back in time to a period before the universe cooled enough to allow us to see the very earliest of galaxies. that period is generally regarded as approximately 400,000 years after the big bang. before that, the univese was a soup of radiation (no photons - no light).

thus we cannot observe the very early universe, and right now have no ability to observe beyond the limits of our present technology. so this is a question we are unable to answer with any degree of accuracy because the distance that can be observed is limited to the age of the universe multiplied by the speed of light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe

also see:
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/1999/ph123/lec07.html

as for the actual debate on our universe being infinite or not, here is a very detailed and interesting read (if a bit weighty & long):

http://www.eitgaastra.nl/timesgr/part4/1.html

Answer 4

The Universe is infinite? According to Dr. Albert Einstein RelativityTheory , the Universe is simply FINITE.
To indicate otherwise would violate the Tenets of General Relativity Theory.

Answer 5

No it is finite. There is a finite number of mass/energy in the universe, but it appears infinite in the three spacial dimentions.

If you travel for a really long time in the same direction, much faster than light (otherwise the expansion will overtake you), you will reach the same place where you started.

This is the same way in earth appears to be "infinite" in two dimentions. The earth's surface does not have a boundary in two dimentions, yet it is finite. The universe does not have a boundary in three dimentions, but if you travel long and fast, you will see the same stars repeating.

However, you will have to travel faster than the rate of expansion to be able to experience this. Again it's the same as the earth analogy. If earth grew bigger, you would have had to travel faster than the critical speed in order to ever be able to complete the circumference.

Answer 6

Well many people believe that it is infinite and there is no evidence that disputes it. There is also no evidence that it is infinite besides the fact we cant see the end. So I would say its infinite because it makes the most sense and no one can say your wrong because no one knows for sure.

Answer 7

The universe came into being about 14 billion years ago. Since then it has been expanding at a finite rate for a finite amount of time. Therefore it is finite.

Answer 8

There is no evidence that the universe is finite or infinite.

Answer 9

In my opinion, I don't think anything is infinite; the Universe may stop at some point, but keeps growing. Its like the edge is being pulled every day.

If the Universe is expanding, I also believe it may collapse soon.

Answer 10

the universe has a limit, but space is infinite. the universe is just a region in space, constituted of all those heavenly wonders. there are arguments that there may be more than one universe in space.