is space infinate?

[manaman]

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

Pure and utter incomprehensible nothingness. Inidentally it is infinite, as if you got an impossibly fast rocket and travelled in a dead straight line through space, you''d end up where you started. The human mind can not comprehend how it is possible, but somehow it is.

Actually that has less to do with being incomprehensible and more to do with how we conceive a straight line. Everyone knows that gravity warps space, everyone has seen the stupid fabric warped by fruit type demonstration of this (that is utter bullshit).

Imagine an exercise to test what a straight line was. Say a laser is your test. Light travels in a straight line right? If you fired the laser it would be effected by gravity.

Here make this easy, if the only way you could test and conceive of a line between points took gravity into account then what we think of as a straight line would be nothing like it is described in textbooks.

 

[caz105]

Yes. The Universe is expanding faster than ever. It's expanding at about 71 km/s/Mpc.

No it isn't infinite, if it was then there wouldn't be night because the sky would be full of stars and light.

That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

If the universe is infinitely big there would be an infinite number of stars producing infinite amounts of light which would (because the universe is infinite) eventually reach the earth. The sheer number of stars would cause enough light for there to be no light.

 

[ShawnRiles]

It's not exactly infinite, nothing can be. It does have an exact size, but it's currently expanding more and more.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Nobody knows.

 

[Chameliondude]

OK, i will answer the question, SPACE is infinate, as space is nothing and there is infinate nothing, as there logically has to be, tada, the known universe is expanding and is roughly 100million galaxies across with about 100miliion stars in each, it may stop expanding at some point and go the other way.

there may be other universe but they are completely undetectable to us as are so far away.
There is a theory which is quite compelling that there is a supermassive object in space pulling all mass towards it which may prove the existence of other bigger univeres.

 

[oppp7]

To steal a quote human stupidity is infinite

"The only things that are infinite in this world are the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not even sure about the universe." ~Einstein (I think that's how it goes)
OT: Ya, I heard that the universe is expanding from the big bang. Not sure what's beyond.

 

[Cargando]

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

Pure and utter incomprehensible nothingness. Inidentally it is infinite, as if you got an impossibly fast rocket and travelled in a dead straight line through space, you''d end up where you started. The human mind can not comprehend how it is possible, but somehow it is.

Actually that has less to do with being incomprehensible and more to do with how we conceive a straight line. Everyone knows that gravity warps space, everyone has seen the stupid fabric warped by fruit type demonstration of this (that is utter bullshit).

Imagine an exercise to test what a straight line was. Say a laser is your test. Light travels in a straight line right? If you fired the laser it would be effected by gravity.

Here make this easy, if the only way you could test and conceive of a line between points took gravity into account then what we think of as a straight line would be nothing like it is described in textbooks.

I know that, but the fact that the line is simultaneously straight and arriving at it's beginning is what we can't understand.

 

[Amnestic]

Yes. The Universe is expanding faster than ever. It's expanding at about 71 km/s/Mpc.

No it isn't infinite, if it was then there wouldn't be night because the sky would be full of stars and light.

That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

If the universe is infinitely big there would be an infinite number of stars producing infinite amounts of light which would (because the universe is infinite) eventually reach the earth. The sheer number of stars would cause enough light for there to be no light.

Once again: Light does not work that way. Are some stars in the sky dimmer than others?

Answer: Yes.

If you stand 50 feet away from someone holding a torch, does it appear dimmer than if you were five feet away?

Answer: Yes.

Conclusion: I shouldn't have to spell this out.

 

[Stoic raptor]

Space is not infinite, but its huge. And some scientists think there are multiple universes. Like if you exit our universe, you would find another. If you exit that universe, you would be in another universe.

 

[Tekyro]

Yes.

But here is a strange thought...
If space itself is forever expanding, what is making room for space to expand?
Will reality itself just pop one day because the balloon that is space just got too full of air?

[small]If you took me seriously, you're very, very silly.[/small]

Well then I'm very, very silly, as I think this is a decent theory. It could work.

 

[grimsprice]

Yes. The Universe is expanding faster than ever. It's expanding at about 71 km/s/Mpc.

No it isn't infinite, if it was then there wouldn't be night because the sky would be full of stars and light.

That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Lol, i second that.

This is what i've heard, but it might be outdated or just plain wrong. (clears throat)

Space: The 11 dimensional area that exists, is infinite and still. Constant.
The Universe: The small area within space that contains matter, is expanding. Fast.

 

[arc101]

I can hear the galaxy song from monty pythons meaning of life going round this entire thread

 

[Redingold]

OK, i will answer the question, SPACE is infinate, as space is nothing and there is infinate nothing, as there logically has to be,

Since when was space nothing? Space contains vacuum energy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy]

 

[arc101]

Yes.

But here is a strange thought...
If space itself is forever expanding, what is making room for space to expand?
Will reality itself just pop one day because the balloon that is space just got too full of air?

[small]If you took me seriously, you're very, very silly.[/small]

no, instead there will be a universal wide ice age as the finite energy gets spread over an infinite area
[small] but i prefer your idea[/small]

 

[caz105]

Yes. The Universe is expanding faster than ever. It's expanding at about 71 km/s/Mpc.

No it isn't infinite, if it was then there wouldn't be night because the sky would be full of stars and light.

That has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

If the universe is infinitely big there would be an infinite number of stars producing infinite amounts of light which would (because the universe is infinite) eventually reach the earth. The sheer number of stars would cause enough light for there to be no light.

Once again: Light does not work that way. Are some stars in the sky dimmer than others?

Answer: Yes.

If you stand 50 feet away from someone holding a torch, does it appear dimmer than if you were five feet away?

Answer: Yes.

Conclusion: I shouldn't have to spell this out.

Its dimmer because we are further away and the individual wavelengths have been spread out reducing the intensity of the light. The universe started out at a single point. In order for it to be infinitely big then it has had to be expanding for an infinite amount of time meaning that all light produced will be hitting us.
Suppose only one photon from each star reaches us per second:

1*infinity= infinity
Therefore an infinite number of photons will be hitting us every second more than enough to make the same light intensity as daylight

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

Red shift / blue shift

The universe is expanding and yes space is infinite!


As for the post above me, you're an idiot and your logic is flawed... Light travels both as particles and waves. they dissipate over time and space, not to mention the dust other particles in space that would hinder your theory even more so.

 

[manaman]

OK, i will answer the question, SPACE is infinate, as space is nothing and there is infinate nothing, as there logically has to be, tada, the known universe is expanding and is roughly 100million galaxies across with about 100miliion stars in each, it may stop expanding at some point and go the other way.

there may be other universe but they are completely undetectable to us as are so far away.
There is a theory which is quite compelling that there is a supermassive object in space pulling all mass towards it which may prove the existence of other bigger univeres.

There are not other universes. By definition there is only one as Uni means it encompasses everything. String theory, you know us sitting on a brane, says that the big bang could have been set off as a result of banes contacting. That means there could be multiple big bangs on the same brane. Or it could mean that each time it happens it destroys everything on the brane and we all die. Space is not "nothing" even out in the deepest of space there is a mean particle level, and while Einstein was able to describe a universe without matter, he was not able to discribe an empty universe. His matter less universe had fields.

snip

I know that, but the fact that the line is simultaneously straight and arriving at it's beginning is what we can't understand.

Sure you can. Imagine for a minute you where outside the rest of the expanding matter bubble. Since there is nothing outside it the "universe" it would technically be smaller then its schwartzchild radius making it a black hole.

 

[Wakefield]

am I the only one who thought of Infinite Space when I saw the title?

Anyone?

Anyone?

 

[MrDarkling]

All I can imagine is that you have one part where it full of galaxies with empty space in between them and more space between the planets and nebulas they hold.
Then there's another part that is just 'empty space'.

If there are more and more galaxies filling that 'empty space' outwards and continues to so then that means there are infinite 'empty space'.
Some determine infinity by how the universe (Filled space) is expanding outwards into the 'empty space'.
Then others simply say the universe is infinite by counting that 'empty space' as SOMETHING.

In my opinion I do not care for how 'BIG' the universe is.
I will never see it, you will never see it and I believe the human race will NEVER see it.
Although I do question one who says that it is not infinite.
Something is always part of something bigger.
There is no big wall of the Universe because then I'd just ask what contains the wall?

If anything the end of the universe is that all things will spread until the life of it dies like how gas in a bottle will spread and vanish into the atmosphere although that is a slightly bad example seen as the gas spreads into the surrounding atmosphere itself.

Finally I do like the thought that there is a point when that when nothing no longer remains, the intensity of nothingness must balance out like a equal sided equation and that it brings everything (Big Bang) ,like a re-birth of the universe?