What Is Beyond The Observable Universe?

heliocentricprose

I believe that more stars, black holes, and galaxies lie beyond the observable universe. These unseen do not effect us because of the cosmic expansion. However, (I think this has been said before) I like to think of the observable as a line of sight. You can't see it over the horizon, yet you know China exists. Outside that 'sphere' of the universe, I believe, out of pure guesswork and fantasy (of course), that the other dimensions of the universe, come into play... this is the point where I start confusing myself and start watching Spongebob Square Pants. :) Good day.

hejs

If we travel infinitely far into the microcosmos then we will meet the astronaut who travel infinitely far out to the macrocosmos. Sound good at least :)

Tojen

Isn't space created by matter? If that's the case, there should be nothing past the boundaries of the Universe, at least nothing we can perceive or relate to in any way.

kmarinas86

No, the majority of physicists think it is created by "dark energy", but its not really the creation of space, it's the expansion of it.

kant

So, i guess the robot is giving me the silent treatment.

Tojen

kmarinas86,

What I meant to say was that you can't have space without matter, and vice versa. At least that's my uneducated take on it. I didn't know dark energy was considered to be the cause of space, or its expansion. I learned something already. Thanks.

matt.o

dark energy is not the cause of space, nor is it the cause of the expansion of space. Dark energy is thought to cause the acceleration of the expansion of space.

roland

Beyond the observable universe is the unobserved universe that we have yet to see. It simply goes on forever. If it is not infinite, where does it end? Think about it. It cannot possibly end.

Chronos

Beyond the observable universe is irrelevant. It has no consequences in our observable universe. This is a philosophical, not scientific issue.

roland

Hi Chronos. Yes you are right. However I do feel that this is a very negative answer to the original question.

Chronos

Agreed. But, I am sticking by my guns: non-observables are irrelevant.

Silverbackman

Chronos you do have a point. However just because this question overlaps a bit with philosophy it doesn't mean it is totally not science. We have no observable evidence that aliens exist, but nearly all scientists know even without observation that there has to be other life in the galaxy (or at least the universe).

So what would happen if you were to go theoretically in a space ship beyond the observable universe? If space is more than empty space and you do keep going in black space, then I assume there definitely is something beyond this observable universe. I assume there maybe other universes perhaps billions of "light years" away.

I mean what else can explain the ends of the universe? It wouldn't make much sense to bump into a barrier would it? We see the ends of the universe as just black space, correct? There is no proof it is nothing more than just black space.

Silverbackman

When we say "beginning of time" we really mean when this current manifest of particles arose, correct? We refer to time as light years traveling back to the big bang but I assume time in its broadest sense has existed for infinite and while the universe(s) may manifest have a finite time span (but in reality an infinite lifespan because of the perhaps cyclical constant flux). This also gets into philosophy as well.

SpaceTiger

We technically mean the time when the density of our cosmological model diverges (the initial singularity). On a linear timescale, this would appear coincident with the creation of matter, but we usually describe the evolution of the universe on a logarithmic scale.


In the standard model, there is a finite age to the universe if one uses the standard definition of time (a ticking clock, for example) for an observer with no velocity in comoving coordinates.

kant

An apple falls from a tree, and there is no one to hear or observed the occurence. That does not negate the occurence of that event(apple falling) . I think you need to use your brain more, and stop pretending to be a robot.

heliocentricprose

I agree. Cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole. Since the expansion of the universe is greater than the speed of light(the speed of information in the universe), we will gradually be able to observe less and less of the universe. I don't think that means we should abandon the unobservables and work only in our 'tiny' seemingly uniform patch of space. Who knows? Maybe someday there will be a way to 'see' past the horizon.

Burnsys

I think this link is usefull to the thread.. it talks about inflation

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/21st_ce...res/lec28.html



Only the part of the universe that is inside the observable universe is "OUR universe".
Becouse space expanded faster that ligth we won't be able to "observe" anything beyon the age of the univers in light years (15 billons)

Anything else, exist or not, is irrelevant, becouse we will never be able to observe it.

In other universes with diferent rules, constants, dimensions etc (if they exists) the action of observe may doen't even make any sense.


http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/images/...ic_bubbles.gif