the universe.. its big right? but just how big???

Question

just how big can the universe be? i mean every thing in life has a begining and an end, everything has perameters even if you go round the world you come back on yourself. is this how the universe works, surely it can't go on forever......can it

Answer 1

Space is big ,really big you just won't believe how vastly,hugely mindbogglingly big it is.I mean you may think its a long way down the road to the chemist but that's just peanuts to space.

Answer 2

The actual distance we can see is about 14.7 billion light years in any direction- diameter of about 28.4 billion Lightyears, but that doesn't take into account how long the light has taken to reach us (the universe is constantly expanding.)

The so-called observable universe has a diameter of 92-94 BILLION Lightyears. The calculations used to get this figure take into account the light sources postion NOW, rather than where it was when the light was emitted.


As we can only actually see the observable universe, there is no way of determining how big- or small- the whole Universe actually is. The Universe might actually 'end' at 92-94 Billion Lightyears, or it might go on a couple of more metres, or it might be totally infinte.

There's just no way that we can actually 'see'- because to do that, we'd have to travel over the 'horizon' and have a look ourselves.

So, to all intents and purposes, the Universe is around 92-94 Billion Lightyears across.

We can only speculate what's outside that volume- we will probably never know with any certainty.

Answer 3

It depends on what you mean by the universe?

Do you mean the empty space or the stuff in it?

The stuff in it is likely limited. Perhaps to 156 billion light years wide, as is the latest theory, but there could be other "universes" beyond our own, still in our 3 dimensional existence, but that are just too far away for the light to reach us. Also there could be other universes in other dimensions.

As for the size of the universe in terms of the empty space, it can only be 2 things...

1.) Absolutely Infinate

or

2.) Infinate in the sense that there is no end but you could end up back where you started. Like on earth whichever direction you go you get back where you started and in theory you could carry on doing that forever. But thats in an understandable 3d sense. Most humans cannot understand how that could be possible in space, but our brains are simply too primitive to understand it. The idea that there is a wall in space that you bump into is ridiculous imo. Unless it was enclosed somehow and there was actually something beyond it. In which case, that would by definition not be the end of the universe! The idea that you somehow fall off the end of space is also totally ludicrus, period! What would you be falling off into? Nothingness?! Thats exactly what space already is! Nothingness! lol

Our brains are also too simple and primitive to understand the concept of something lasting forever. I believe it is possible for something to last forever, both in space and time. Perhaps time is also infinite in a curved sense aswell or is affected by gravity also so eventually if you carry on into the future, u'll end up back in the past! lol All this ties in with the theory of the universe exploding (big bang) and then eventually in the future re-imploading and exploding all over again, perhaps back into this, or another dimension and starting all over again. That way it will all exist forever, just like it always has done. It makes perfect sense, although in a way we can't fully understand. There quite simply was no beginning and there'll be no end! Or the end and the beginning are the same thing and time aswell as space implodes and then re-explodes forever and ever and ever.

Answer 4

The universe is merely defined as "the totality of known or supposed objects and phenomena throughout space" so the universe isn't really the endless thing we make out... The universe ends at the furthest object we know.

Space on the otherhand is endless :)

But here's a good thought... If beyond our known universe there was nothing, then how can our universe exist? Since by it's mere nature, nothing cannot exist, how can somthing exist within nothing without that somthing merely being an illusion with which to make the nothing feel less lonely?

Answer 5

I happen to believe the Universe is infinite, but there is a lot of evidence suggesting that space is curved and if something travels far enough in a straight line, it will end up where it starts, leaving aside the expansion of space. I once heard an estimate that this distance is at leat 27 billion light years. It is possible to detect radio waves from up to around 15 billion light years away, and since they aren't coming from two directions at once, the minimum size has to be at least 30 billion light years.

Answer 6

The Universe is a finite entity which exists confined in a particular containment with definite boundaries(restrains) and dimensions.
How Big it is no scientist knows for certain .The radius vector of the universe has been calculated as per Hubble's constant. However is only a very rough approximation. All that can be said ,is that it s big enough to fit the earth and the solar system and all stars and galaxies.

Answer 7

Its possible, would you prefer to believe that whilst flying through space you would suddenly hit a wall and find the edge of the universe, or just fall off the edge?

It has been proposed however that the universe is curved and you would end up right back where you started, but in this theory our universe is within another larger universe called the Multiverse, then I guess your question would go on to how big is the multiverse, and at the moment this is an unanswerable question.

Answer 8

We will never know for sure but best guess maths says 156 billion light years and accelerating.
In fact the most distant things we can see, we are moving apart at faster then C such is the expansion of the universe. Its not breaking special relativity though because the matter isnt traveling though space that fast, its an illusion of space expanding.

Answer 9

The "observable universe" is about 14 billion light years in radius.

And no it doesn't go on forever, however because of the rate of expansion it is "in effect" infinite.

Answer 10

No it will not go on forever but it is intensely huge, so huge that people are questioning that we will never be able to travel to the end of the universe even with thousands of years of technology but everything has to stop somewhere.

Answer 11

Nobody knows if space is infinite or if the universe evenually curves back in on itself. And if nobody knows, you won't get an answer on here. Sounds like you were after more of a discussion than an answer.