Size / limits of the universe.

Ok, so here's a question for discussion:

How far does the universe/space actually stretch out? Is it actually possible for something to go on forever?
If it DOES end somewhere though, what's on the other side?

The Universe stretches out to infinity. If there were anything on the other side, it would probably be a parallel Universe.

See that's where I get confused, how can something "never" end. But then again, how COULD it end? Im so confused :'(

Your asking a question that is only answered in the from of an opinion since there is no proof and never will be. The universe as far as we can tell is infinite resulting in something so large our brains can't comprehend it. The deep space images from Hubble are just insane.

The universe stretches as far as your imagination allows. Or as far as your town limits end.

Wikipedia is your friend. It says the universe is at least 93 billion light years across and may be infinite.

The Universe is everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them.

As the universe contains everything, it may be considered to be infinite because anything that can possibly be observed, including imo an observable absence of anything is still something, and therefore part of the universe.

IMO: Theres the observable universe, every particle that came from the big bang (supposedly), and then whats' beyond that. I think that there is a finite distance from point of the big bang to where the farthest particle has traveled, but beyond that is just completely empty space. Absolutley nothing. Maybe other universes infinitely far away. And how can nothingness end? If you zoom out from our universe it would appear as just a dot, surrounded by black that goes on forever. And why does there have to be an end?

We have more important things to worry about than the universe, like the sweet decay of humanity and the depleatencies of our natural resources, and pie.

*ed. Steel, what does there have to be an end? There doesn't. We can only assume the universe will end using hardcore maths and shit, but fuck that. It didn't bother the Romans, shouldn't bother us teehee

+1 to the infinite emptyness theory

i think there's just every particle that exists, then there's space that keeps on going.the universe is infinite, just like pi (unless you're a civil engineer and you're allowed to round it to 5 for simplicity)

*ed. Steel, what does there have to be an end? There doesn't. We can only assume the universe will end using hardcore maths and shit, but fuck that. It didn't bother the Romans, shouldn't bother us teehee

Huh what? That's what i was saying. The emptyness goes on forever, with no end, because there cannot be an end to nothing, you see?

Does the emptiness go on forever, or is it like in a video game where you can run forever, only to turn around and be exactly where you were before? And if there is nothing, how can you tell it exists?

If the universe is 93 million light years acrossed,
by the time you got to the other side it would be twice as far due to the expantion of the universe.

Hubble has show some great places, that by now do not exist.
This is because it took "X" amount of light years just for the light to travel to Hubble .

Maybe some day we will have faster then lightspeed travel...

If the universe is 93 million light years acrossed,
by the time you got to the other side it would be twice as far due to the expantion of the universe.
the known universe doesn't expand at the speed of light so by the time you got there it would be bigger but not twice as big (if you were to travel at the speed of light).

if you weren't talking about traveling at the speed of light forget my comment

the known universe doesn't expand at the speed of light so by the time you got there it would be bigger but not twice as big (if you were to travel at the speed of light).

if you weren't talking about traveling at the speed of light forget my comment

Ok I was guest-a-mating at the expansion rate, I dont think we realy know how fast it is expanding, but the expantion speed does increase as the millennium's roll by.

I'd be satisfied with just going to the other side of our Milkyway. You can see below where we are.

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~astro/seminars/images/Milky_Way_galaxy_sun05.jpg

The Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, and about 1,000 light years thick.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Milkyway_pan1.jpg
It is estimated to contain at least 200 billion, and up to 400 billion stars.

The age of the oldest star in the Galaxy yet discovered is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old, nearly as old as the Universe itself. :screwy:

So how could this be.... are we the genisis of all life?
Where does the Milky Way fall into the life cycle of the entire universe.... ?

Now that's something to ponder over your morning cup of Jo. :cool:

So how could this be.... are we the genisis of all life?

Maybe....maybe not.
:grinyes: :grinno::runaround:

Huh what? That's what i was saying. The emptyness goes on forever, with no end, because there cannot be an end to nothing, you see?

hahah, awesome.

We'll find out in 2012 I guess ^_^