How do we know space is not infinite?

[Drakkith]

I think of space as a landscape. an environment. different from our own, but a landscape still. self renewing.

by the way. do you know what neighborhood we live in in the universe? are we close to the core? on the edge? somewhere in the suburbs? Do you know if that's been figured out?

There is no edge, no center, no suburbs to the best of our knowledge.

 

[Blueyes5804]

Thank You. so you're saying there is no "map" of the universe, and because of that, no galactic gps for us. ty. just wondering.

 

[phinds]

Thank You. so you're saying there is no "map" of the universe, and because of that, no galactic gps for us. ty. just wondering.

There is a map of the OBSERVABLE universe and it even has a center (WE are the center by definition) but that doesn't tell us about the rest of universe, just our little bitty part of it.

You said "no galactic gps". I assume you meant "no universe gps". Our galaxy is a staggeringly trivial part of the universe and we have a fair bit of knowledge of where things are in our galaxy (the Milky Way).

 

[skippy1729]

I would like to know where, in the universe, are we. the milky way I mean. are we in the middle, in the suburbs, out on the farm? where exactly? any ideas?

Here is a nice picture of where we are: http://n-a-s-a.tumblr.com/post/13461282020/are-there-any-data-and-visualizations-that-graphically

Outer suburbs, close to the farms.

Skippy

 

[Blueyes5804]

just went to the NASA link. O M G! ty

 

[Blueyes5804]

How typical that we would think we are the center of the universe! reminds me of when we thought the sun revolved around the earth! lol ty for all the feedback. I find it really interesting!

 

[Drakkith]

How typical that we would think we are the center of the universe! reminds me of when we thought the sun revolved around the earth! lol ty for all the feedback. I find it really interesting!

We don't think we are at the center of the Universe. But we KNOW we are at the center of the OBSERVABLE Universe. Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe

In Big Bang cosmology, the observable universe consists of the galaxies and other matter that we can in principle observe from Earth in the present day, because light (or other signals) from those objects has had time to reach us since the beginning of the cosmological expansion. Assuming the universe is isotropic, the distance to the edge of the observable universe is roughly the same in every direction—that is, the observable universe is a spherical volume (a ball) centered on the observer, regardless of the shape of the universe as a whole. Every location in the universe has its own observable universe which may or may not overlap with the one centered on the Earth.