Is There An Edge For The Universe?

[ladyleviticus]

Hello <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />does anyone think there is an edge for the universe? an end? or do you think the universe keeps going on forever? any opinion my fellow space explorers <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[j_rankin]

there's already a recent active topic on this:<br /><br />http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=askastronomer&Number=353231&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

 

[newtonian]

Yes, I do think there is an edge in the sense that there is a limit to the light and gravity of our universe, with an expanding finite edge.<br /><br />However, there may be black holes that have achieved escape velolcity from our universe as in this verse:<br /><br />(Jude 13) . . .stars with no set course, for which the blackness of darkness stands reserved forever.

 

[vogon13]

No matter where you go in the universe, you are always at the center of a sphere whose radius is described as the distance from you at which the recessional velocity equals lightspeed.<br /><br />No matter where you're at!<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[newtonian]

crazyeddie - Thank you. <br /><br />So what do you think? Could black holes, in view of their greater mass-density, have been propelled by whatever caused FTL inflation to escape velocity from the gravity of the expanding singularity, i.e. from the gravity of our universe?

 

[newtonian]

vogon13 - To our knowledge you are correct. However, we have limited knowledge beyond the Hubble deep field photo.<br /><br />However, the edge you are describing is the visibility horizon, or the light cone from any specific reference point.<br /><br />If there is an edge to our universe it would be well beyond our visibility horizon.<br /><br />What complicates this whole question is inflation theory with its faster than light expansion.<br /><br />And also, the question of shape and dimensions.

 

[tripcat]

If it has an edge then there has to be something beyond it. Even nothingness, once percieved, is a 'something' occupying space, and therefore part of existence which is technically, the universe. So really we're back to the old question, if nothing is percieved and therefore becomes a something as a part of the universe, does the universe have an edge.<br />The answer is no, unless we can evolve to the point where we're travelling faster that the speed of peception.

 

[newtonian]

tripcat - I responded to this duplicate post on the duplicate edge thread.<br /><br />Which brings up whether there could be a duplicate edge - i.e. one in 3-d and another in 4-d!<br /><br />Shall we make this the 3-d thread?

 

[harmonicaman]

One cannot discuss the “Edge“ of the universe without considering the factor of time. Time is the matrix in which our universe exists. The “Edge” of the universe could be described as the Big Bang event. Note that there is nothing beyond this “Edge”; in either time nor space - this is a null concept.<br /><br />The universe started out as a “Point” and it may help if you think of the universe as still being a single ”Point” for this thought experiment.<br /><br />YOU are at the center of this “Point! Note that every other “Point” in the universe shares this very same perspective.<br /><br />Now add the factor of time to the universe. Every point in the universe now sees itself as the furthest from the “Edge”, as the most rapidly expanding, and as the fastest moving point in the universe.<br /><br />The Universe is still just a single “Point”, which is expanding inside out within that “Point”. Nothing has changed the fundamental fact that our universe started out as a single point in space time; so therefore every point in the Universe must share the same perspective that they are at the very center of this “Point”.<br /><br />The universe is bigger than the box it comes in!<br />