The universe goes on forever and ever

[Kulindahr]

Dark energy is the greatest mystery standing in physics, or at least cosmology. Until we understand it, nobody knows for sure what the ultimate fate of the universe will be, but as far as anyone can tell a tragic entropic heat death is likely the end of all ordered existence, but perhaps not expansion. Not only is the universe expanding, but the expansion is accelerating without any signs of letting up, that is until dark energy experiments can ascertain how it responds to gravity and a dramatically spaced out universe.

That is the latest.

I came across a short scifi novel a while back where some physicist discovered that if the temperature and matter density got low enough space could "rip", setting off a new Big Bang... which he couldn't decide would stay in the present universe or pop "out" to start a new one. The outcome was never stated; he just set off in a starship to find a spot with the right conditions, a couple of million lightyears from any known matter. It was mentioned in the context of wondering, if a new Big Bang popped into the present universe, what it would do to travel between galaxies.

How was he able to travel out millions of lightyears? They had a "probability generator", a toy that tweaked probabilities in the living vacuum to make virtual particles turn into real fuel (thus adding mass to the universe!)....

 

[Kulindahr]

That seems like the most reasonable explanation to me and that probably goes to show that I don't know what space and location are. Surely if you projected an object at speed greater than anything and high enough to overcome any gravitational force, it would eventually go beyond all the matter and energy around us into a void that surrounds the world we know? I didn't use the word "universe" because I make a distinction between the matter and energy that has been expanding since the Big Bang and everywhere, but are people saying that there cannot be space beyond the former?

Nope, no void, just the same thing on and on. The Big Bang happened everywhere -- everyplace is the center; you're the center of the universe, I'm the center of the universe, downtown Tel Aviv is the center of the universe, Tau Ceti is the center....

The unsettling thing is that if space really is flat, and the universe is infinite, then the Big Bang wasn't a point but was also infinite....

 

[cynicus]

Thinking too much about it will make your head explode. Milton says in Paradise Lost that we should be "lowly wise." Good advice for non-physicists.

 

[Keeland]

I didn't use the word "universe" because I make a distinction between the matter and energy that has been expanding since the Big Bang and everywhere, but are people saying that there cannot be space beyond the former?

Nope, no void, just the same thing on and on. The Big Bang happened everywhere -- everyplace is the center; you're the center of the universe, I'm the center of the universe, downtown Tel Aviv is the center of the universe, Tau Ceti is the center....

Matter is not expanding. Space is expanding.

An example often given is a loaf of raisin bread baking in an oven. The space between the raisins expands as the loaf bakes; the raisons don't expand.

Each raisin "thinks" it's at the centre as every other raisin is racing away from it.

Where did the raisin loaf's big-bang expansion begin? Everywhere at once.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

I've always pictured the big bang not like a stick of dynamite exploding outward from one central point, but more like a shattered marble where some other universe spills into ours through the cracks.

 

[Telstra]

Physicists believe in Multi verse and it goes forever ...

 

[Benvolio]

It is illogical for anything to exist. If nothing existed, that would be logical. Where did it come from? Since the universe exists, humans need to know where it came from. But that source is as illogical,in its extistence as the universe. The only solution is that there is a basic flaw in our need to know. God is anot an answer, since we need to know where he came from.
Consider this. We cannot conceive of a beginng of time. Time in the past must be infinite. If you could go backin time, you would keep going forever. BUT that would mean that an infinite time has passed up to now, AND an infinite time, by definition, cannot pass. You must conclude that our understanding is flawed.

 

[Benvolio]

I throw out this question: Go back before the Big Bang. Just a dense singularity ball. Nothing moving,including electron, protons. If nothing is happening, is time passingy? Your first reaction is to imagine it and think time is passing, BUT that is really time passing in your mind. If nothing is happening, is time passing.?

 

[Kulindahr]

some physicists believe in multi verse and it goes forever ...

ftfy

 

[Alnitak]

I throw out this question: Go back before the Big Bang. Just a dense singularity ball. Nothing moving,including electron, protons. If nothing is happening, is time passingy? Your first reaction is to imagine it and think time is passing, BUT that is really time passing in your mind. If nothing is happening, is time passing.?

Time is a quality of space and measurement of change, so no there was no time. That assumes of course that we are sure the Universe comes from a singularity.

 

[mikemizanin729]

I doubt anyone really knows the answer.


It does look like the Universe isn't the only thing that goes on forever and ever

Rosie O'Donell goes on forever and she is fat. Built like a universe.

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

it no fallin down ata mo so dat a gurd

thankyou

"ma HaiR!!!!!!"
$scream$

da end

 

[Kulindahr]

Time is a quality of space and measurement of change, so no there was no time. That assumes of course that we are sure the Universe comes from a singularity.

That's why I adopted the philosophical term "prior" rather than "before" -- in the philosophical sense, it's a logical precursor, not a temporal one.

If I'm remembering right, if the universe is flat, then it all came from an unbounded singularity, which allows the original "fireball" to be of infinite extent itself, while if it's curved, then it all came from a bounded singularity, which allows for a "first condition" of zero extent and infinite density, energy, etc.

Fun stuff.

 

[Kulindahr]

Rosie O'Donell goes on forever and she is fat. Built like a universe.

Is she still expanding? We know she's bounded....

 

[Taz]

Its all theoretical because we have absolutely no way of measuring any of it. Our perception of reality is not equal to what it actually is. Still, it is fun to think about what might be, or have happened out there.

 

[JPGhost]

Now..
do you believe now in reincarnation? ^^

 

[Taz]

^ I'd like to. But I can also admit that that just comes from my fear that death is the end. I shouldn't much like being gone forever.

 

[JPGhost]

^
Well, Im just done writing a story which will make you more pay attention to reincarnation idea ^^

 

[borg69unimatrix]

Time is a quality of space and measurement of change, so no there was no time. That assumes of course that we are sure the Universe comes from a singularity.

That is an interesting point. We measure time by Earths rotations around the sun broken down into years, months, days, hours, seconds with a random (?) Starting point of BC and AD. It's very earth specific as each planet spins and revolves differently. How does one perceive time passing in outer space? Does it, without the contextual reference of a spinning planet or a clock to look at?

How did BC civilizations calculate dates (birth dates) ? Alexander the great didn't go around telling people he was 350 BC years old (rough guess).

 

[Telstra]

^
Well, Im just done writing a story which will make you more pay attention to reincarnation idea ^^

I like to believe about reincarnation and karma ...
but logic tells me it is unlikely