Does space end?

I agree that this is one of the subjects that make my head hurt.


I think it is impossible to imagine that space goes on forever.

And I think it is impossible to imagine that it ends somewhere.



How can it go on forever? This is especially hard to imagine if you believe in the big bang, and evolution......which I don't, by the way.

But, then again....how can it end?


Either way......it is impossible to imagine or to come to terms with.




Oh.....well.........back to the drawing board!

If the big bang explosion theory is correct, and the space expanding by the explosion of the big bang is correct.

Then yes, space has an end, however, that ''border'' is moving further and further away, making it take you longer to get to this ''end'' by every moment that passes.

Simply put, something cannot be infinite if it is expanding or shrinking, thus it must be finite, and must have a certain shape and ''end''

If spaces current size would be infinite, then it would have no shape, and no end.

To say that space is infinitely large due to that it is everexpanding is wrong.
It means that its size will grow for all eternity, but it does not mean the size itself is infinite, the increase is. An eternal process of adding more 9's to the size.

For those that think they are smart. "Stretching" is different from expanding in my ''use'' of words.

With expand I mean that the volume within X to Y does not increase or decrease due to the expansion of the universe.

With stretch I mean that the volume DOES decrease, as you are basically distancing matter from other matter that's contained in the ''stretch'' part.


Would be cool if it was possible to fly to the end of the universe, to see a huge wall of explosions and flames crawling away from you.

[edit on 7/8/07 by -0mega-]

What I think is the universe ends at some point, but to us it is never
ending because we can never reach the end. Until we have the techology,
we will never know.

Originally posted by NateNute
I was refering to size.

uuh umm. Don't we all?? hahahahaha I couldn't resist that. Yes, strike me down with the one liner. But at least you'll laugh before it gets wacked. haha

a sience teacher in high school once told me that space is contantly expanding at the speed of light. So, if man could potentially travel faster than the speed on light, then in theory at some point we could look behind us and see the universe expanding on itself

current science theory says space not only does end but it MUST end...somewhere due to the nature of the speed of light being the current 'Speed limit of the universe.

they can calculate how old the universe (big bang by back stepping and can work out where the current horizon of space as we know it should lie due to light speed as matter is expanding at this speed..

wether its flat or we live on the surface of a baloon shaped universe may mean we will never see the horizon of space or what if anything lies beyond it ....

whats in the middle of the baloon i hear u all shout.. it dont matter it could be swiss cheese .. we would probably never know.

Originally posted by Old Man
How can it go on forever? This is especially hard to imagine if you believe in the big bang, and evolution......which I don't, by the way.

What's evolution got to do with the size of the universe??

It's weird to think about, because unlike the earth it doesn't have one surface you can walk on, it goes everywhere in every direction, so even if it were a sphere you could still get to the edge of it that'd be the edge, so what i've always wondered is, is it possible to leave the edge of the Universe, and what would happen if you did? Or is it somehow like one of those old Video games where you go off one side of the screen and come back on the other, and what would that do to our understanding of space/time?

I've lived in Springfield Missouri for about 10 years now. Believe me when I say that space ends just before you get here.

There are a few theories, One is the big bang has caused the the universe to expand, but its also, speeding up They say this is Dark Energy, the space between galaxies is expanding on top of the movement from the big bang.

Now that being said, I think a few people have hit upon, the globe, balloon theory which is most likely correct, one bubble in a Multi-verse, you want your brain to hurt, look into M-theory and the 11 dimensions, some of them right next to but so curled up and small they are undetectable.

Long story short, think if you flew around the world in a plane. eventually you would get back to where you began. I think this is how the universe is shaped and only some act of extra ordinary power can tear a hole in the universe (if thats possible.) where you could slip into the multi-verse lol. Will we ever know in our lifetime, probably not, but at least its a good theory based on the real science and mathmatics

Considering the idea that nothing can travel in a perfectly straight line, any variation from the straight line, no matter how small. Would be magnified by billions of light years of travel in space. Which leads me to believe that space will eventually loop back in on itself. If you were to look for the edge of space you'd need a place to aim for. Since you have no idea where you wanna aim for the edge of space. You would probably have a small variation in your trajectory and end up looping just as space should. Taking you right back home.

In scientific terms of thinking, I don't see any reason that "space" would end. Or for that matter why we would be the only "Universe". To me, saying that we're the only universe in existence is a little like saying the universe revolves around Earth. Why would there be only one "Big Bang"?

I've always thought of the Universe as a Multiverse, including infinite big bangs. I've tried to think of it as putting our earth on a level with atoms, subatomic particles or even quarks. What happens when we split an atom. A tremendous explosion occurs.

Anyway, maybe I'm going to deep here, but here's an illustrations to demonstrate:



Edit: To note that of course there's no scientific reasoning behind this because we haven't even come close to see the edge of our Universe, much less have any sort of proof of an existence of another.

[edit on 7-8-2007 by tyranny22]

I feel that if space can expand then it has an ending. If it is expanding it is moving into something that is not "space", so there has to be a point of distinction between space and what it expands into.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who gets a headache from that question. I HATE THAT QUESTION. I used to think about it a lot when I was small and came to the conclusion that the universe ended with a brick wall. Then the other questions would start, like - WHO BUILT THE BLOODY WALL?I now like the "space is curved" theory. It helps me sleep at night.

If any of you had watched "Futurama" you would know that there is an end to the universe it is where our universe and the parallel universe meet.

Back to being serious. I'm all for the never-ending space loop where it simply folds back into itself

I do not think there can be an end to the universe. Because that means
if we are traveling at the speed of light then we are bound to hit a dead
end in the future sometime shouldn't it?

I believe that our observable universe is falling into a massive black hole and our universe is spaghetifying. This would explain the expansion, dark mater and dark energy.

Equinox, do u think the universe is expanding?

The Universe IS expanding, and anything that can grow or shrink in size isn't exactly infinite. While the Universe is incredibly large, it is finite.

That is the point I was making also...I agree