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9/25/2005 2:06:21 AM
133
What's on the outside of the universe?
Seriously, though? Whenever I look at the sky, I always wonder: what is on the outside of our cosmic bubble?
The universe expands at a rate of around 1 trillion trillion trillion light-years per second. It would take one heckuva rocket engine to get to its end.
But here's another random thought: compare the universe to a rubber band; when you pull it, it stretches. Like how our universe expands.
...But when you let go, it INSTANTLY snaps shut. My point is, if the universe were expanding, chances are its contraction would be around a 1000 times faster, so we'd never feel it.
Back on track: what is on the outside of our universe? It's like a video game: there's an invisible wall. There is another side. But you cannot reach it. If you try, your character dies.
It's impossible to imagine nothing on the outside of a barrier. What is outside the universe's boundary? What does that boundary look like? It freaks me out just thinking about it; like humanity isn't ever supposed to know the answer. Try it: try thinking of an "outside" to the universe. It will give you a headache.
What's preventing us from imagining the outside of the universe???
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Vitamin Zawaz 1--I'm not taking physics. I'm taking environmental science. [/quote] What? No... I think you are talking physics. Enviromental sciences deals with ecology, where as physics deals with how mass and energy interact. [quote]2--How the heck are you certain that there's nothing on the outside?[/quote] A valid question. In theory other universes could exsist outside of our "universe" if the distance they were at was so great that the forces of the two (or more) universes had negligible effect on eachother. So take the size of our universe and multiply that by, say 10 to the 10th to the 10th. That probably wouldn't be far enough. [quote]3--Yes, the universe expands that fast. I read several astronomy books; in one, it is stated that scientists test how fast the universe expands by studying how fast galaxies drift apart from each other. Besides; for an explosion that is trillions of degrees hot (the big bang), wouldn't you think the universe would expand faster than light? [/quote] As far as our human undrestanding of mass and energy, NOTHING can travel faster than the speed of light. For mass to go faster than the speed of light, you need to expend an INFINITE amount of energy. INFINITE. So however much energy you have (yes, even the Big Bang), you'd need MORE energy. You have the energy of a MILLION Big Bangs? You still need more energy to even move one atom of matter faster than the speed of light. That's how the mass works. (See the works of Einstein and beyond.) (Note: If you look at M-theory and other, there can be other demenstions that exsist not outside of our universe, but 'next to.' But this is separtate issue.) As too the rubber band/expanding/contracting universe deal: The universe isn't expanding in that way. A poor, but much closer, analogy would be rolling a ball up a hill. So you have a large hill of a constant angle and try to roll a ball up it. That would be the energy 'throwing' the mass of the universe up the hill. Eventually the ball expends the energy of your roll and slows down. Then gravity takes effect and it starts to roll back down. This is how the unverse starts to contract. All the mass of the universe has gravity that starts to pull it back together. The ball doesn't reach it's peak and suddenly starts to shoot back down the hill. Again, poor analogy but closer.
