posted
While surfing on the site were Capps got his headacher, i found this question:
"so, if scientists reckon that the universe is everything, and the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?"
COme to think of it, it *is* a bit true...any comments?
(Maybe if I see this question again tomorrow, it'll be all clear)
------------------ "When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators, Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." -- Management slogan, Ridcully-style (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, Discworld) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prakesh's Star Trek Site
posted
Here's the bestest answer ever: No-one really knows.
It's one of those things that Humanity hasn't gotten around to visualising, let alone comprehending (and subsequently raping and destroying, if these are the same humans I know of).
What could be out there? A vacuum? Well isn't there one in the Universe as it stands, such that a vacuum expanding into another vacuum won't change all that much.
What if it's a total vacuum, one where even massless photons and gluons do not exist? [remember, space isn't a perfect vacuum; there's stellar elements + interchange particles + neutrinos] If so, then there could be no way of detecting it (photons = radiation, gluons => Strongly interacting matter). Then, that might be what's out there.
[Actually, I'm not too sure about the gluons having mass. I'm knackered, and could not be arsed to go and see if they have, even thought I'm being examined on this in a few weeks. Joy. Pure, unbridled joy.]
What if there are other bubble universes, created out of the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics? Fair enough, they might be there, but then again the question arises "What's between them?"
Jeff's suggestion of created mass has been proposed, and actually was one of the two explanations for a Steady State universe, known at the time to be expanding (thanks to Hubble). It was put forward that matter creation was necessary to explain the expansion viz. the old matter stayed where it was, while new matter is being created constantly at the extreme edges of the Universe. But once it was realised that galaxies are moving away from each other and from a single point, and that Conservation of Energy would most likely be violated by the concept (mass =energy /(speed of light^2)) it was discarded in favour of the Big Bang theory, a model of which agrees with the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation found all over the universe.
Oh,and I don't have the foggiest idea what exists outside our universe. Probably the same "stuff" that existed outside of the infinitely-dense Primordial Atom from which Frank was spewed upon us.
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posted
Jeff has this one close to nailed down. The question of "what is outside the universe" is essentially meaningless. There IS nothing outside the universe. That's why we call it that. It is not expanding into anything. It is merely expanding. And yes, it is space itself that is expanding, not matter.
The problem is that this is so completely counterintuitive, as it violates our common experience. But the universe rarely does things based on how well we will be able to understand them.
------------------ "What did it mean to fly? A tremor in your soul. To resist the dull insistance of gravity." -- Camper Van Beethoven
posted
The cool thing about the universe that is expanding in to areas with nothing is before the universe is there in that area there is nothing, and if you believe in the space/time continum, in that area of nothing not even time exists, so the cool part is when the universe is there time starts, now here's the weird part, when the universe starts to get smaller area has nothing again is that going to be the literal end of time in that area, just a thought.
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The UNIVERSE is everything, and the amount of 'everything-ness' is expanding. That's it (I think)
------------------ "When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators, Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." -- Management slogan, Ridcully-style (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, Discworld) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prakesh's Star Trek Site
posted
Why can't the universe be like another galaxy, with other universes nearby, all floating in a "megaverse"? Isn't it egocentrical to think that our universe is the centre of existenz? I mean, since we can't be sure of anything we shouldn't rule out anything.
------------------ -At least I can get it up without biomechanical pumps. -Try falling into a pit of lava, Moffy. Then see how horny you feel.
[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited April 20, 2000).]
posted
Or, the entire universe is just one single atom part of an icecream some six your-old Q is holding
------------------ "When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators, Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life." -- Management slogan, Ridcully-style (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent, Discworld) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prakesh's Star Trek Site
posted
BUt if our universe were just one of many, then it wouldn't be the universe. The universe is everything. So, if there were other "universes", we'd have to come up with a different word for them. And then people would still go, "Well, how do we know that there aren't other omniverses? Isn't it a big egotistical to assuem that ours is the only onmi/multi/ego/fishverse in existence?"
And then we'd get "How do we know that there aren't other existences out there? Isn't it a bit vain to assume that there is just our existence? How many other "everything that exists"'s are out there?"
And then language collapses.
------------------ "Sometimes I wish the planet would be scoured with cleansing fire. Other times I just wish Frank would be." Sol System
posted
Well, there is a word for it, as already mentioned: multiverse. Anyone who's read enough Trek novels has to have seen it crop up at least once... :-)
And, actually, there are scientific theories out there about multiple "universes". The problem is that we can't observe them, so there's no way to know if they're there or not...
------------------ "Compared to you, every male on this ship is an expert on women!" -Geordi LaForge to Wesley Crusher, TNG: "Sarek"
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