is space infinate?

[grimsprice]

I believe the accepted theory is that the universe is ever expanding, and that eventualy it will been too spread out to support itself, and it will collapse under it's own gravitational pull, and revert to a small and compact space, which will then explode(big crunch and big bang, repsectively)

Sorry, the expanding universe is accelerating. A big crunch, big bang would be cool, because we could survive it in space ships, but i'm afraid the current consensus leaves us with the cold dead universe theory. Oh well, lets hope we can bridge to other universes, we might survive as a species then.

 

[Earthbound Engineer]

i blows your mind to think of space being infinate but is it really ifinate?

Well, it's big, that's for sure. Try to wrap your mind around this: light travels at approximately 300 thousand kilometers per second. At that speed, you can travel around the equator of the earth about 23 and a half times in one second. A light year is the distance light can travel in an entire year. That's about 9,467,077,800,000 kilometers. Now, multiply that by 93 billion, and that is how big we believe the universe is. It's believed that it's still expanding too. But that's all just in theory. Scientists are not certain as to how big the universe is, and whether it's infinite or expanding. If you want the real answer to your question, you won't get it on this thread, at least not for a while.

 

[Sporky111]

The universe could well be infinite, but all we know of is the "visible universe". That is the universe as we think of it, which is anything close enough to Earth that light from it has reached us. The most distant object so far in the visible universe is 13 billion light-years away.

However, a new discovery in the vein of dark matter (the invisible mass that holds galaxies together) and dark energy (the force causing the universe to expand) has been discovered. Dubbed "dark flow", it is an unknown force which is drawing all objects in the universe, entire clusters of galaxies, to a single point. The shocker is that this point has been mathematically placed at 46.5 billion light-years away from Earth.
[ Source ]

 

[Airbear101]

if you imagine it infinate, doesnt that have to mean it is?

 

[ffxfriek]

space is infinite yes. look at star trek, star wars, halo, stargate....etc.

 

[ottenni]

If its infinite that would explain how i keep on loosing all my stuff.

 

[Shycte]

Y'all wanna a poll say FUCK THAT!

Seriously, give me a poll then I'll talk,

 

[NBSRDan]

It's a donut.

FOURTH DIMENSION BITCHES!

Don't ask me how I know this.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Empty space is infinite (don't try to think why just know that you could walk forward for all eternity and never get to an end) but the universe as we know it is made up of stuff that is traveling outward and filling a portion of space.

Thank you, i think that makes maybe three of us on this thread who know what scientists actually think. Oh well.

I like when someone says " well since when we look out into space and we see black, so we must be seeing the end of it! Because its black!! so whats behind the blackness?"

lol. Sometimes i'm embarrassed to share 99% of my genetic coding with other humans.

Just remember: you share 50% of your DNA with a banana as well. We are all half banana. Perhaps we are not as evolved as we think. Half banana scientist man Away!

 

[grimsprice]

if you imagine it infinate, doesnt that have to mean it is?

STOP SAYING INFINATE.

And no, just because you imagine it infinite, doesn't mean it is. I can imagine the flying spaghetti monster. Doesn't mean the pastafarians are right.

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

Yes. Of course it is. It's infinite and expanding.

...then what is it expanding into?

OT: No, it's still expanding from the Big Bang.
The question is what lies beyond

This, I could spend hours contemplating how big it is and what may lay out there... the possibilities are endless. Perhaps there is a planet made of unicorn horns!

 

[hiks89]

what if the clump of mass that started the big bang was only 1 of billions and ours went sort of a gargantuan equivalent of a supernova

 

[Kazyan]

I don't think so. Science has proven that everything in the universe is generally moving away from each other. If space were infinite, something would have to be going faster than the speed of light to keep up that trend, which is impossible.

 

[Ancientgamer]

I haven't read the whole thread.


But why are you asking the escapists something scientists don't even know yet? You think we're holding back?

 

[FROGGEman2]

There are two theories; It is finite, but it loops, it is infinite and expanding. My source is New Scientist... rather, a friend who is nerdy enough to read that shit.

 

[Sewblon]

My impression is that our universe has some definite end, possibly even an exit, but we only perceive four dimensions so we can never interact with it.

 

[jboking]

Yes. Of course it is. It's infinite and expanding.

...then what is it expanding into?

Technically the idea of infinity is constant expansion, as infinity is no one fixed point. So we can say it is infinite because it is constantly expanding at a rapid rate with no signs of ever stopping or of anything that could make it stop. If it ever did stop then we could say it wasn't infinite, but as of yet, we cannot.

 

[Maze1125]

The universe could well be infinite, but all we know of is the "visible universe". That is the universe as we think of it, which is anything close enough to Earth that light from it has reached us. The most distant object so far in the visible universe is 13 billion light-years away.

However, a new discovery in the vein of dark matter (the invisible mass that holds galaxies together) and dark energy (the force causing the universe to expand) has been discovered. Dubbed "dark flow", it is an unknown force which is drawing all objects in the universe, entire clusters of galaxies, to a single point. The shocker is that this point has been mathematically placed at 46.5 billion light-years away from Earth.
[ Source ]

You're almost right.
The edge of the visible universe is in fact 46.5 billion light-years away. The idea that we can only see 13 billion light-years is a misconception based on the line of reasoning that the universe is 13 billion years old and so light can only have travelled 13 billion light-years. This is not the case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Size_of_the_universe

The object causing this "dark flow" is supposed to be just beyond the visible universe.

 

[Maze1125]

I don't think so. Science has proven that everything in the universe is generally moving away from each other. If space were infinite, something would have to be going faster than the speed of light to keep up that trend, which is impossible.

The restriction of travelling slower than the speed of light only applies to physical objects, it does not apply to the fabric of space-time itself.