Size of the universe

[Jim_Baur]

Please forgive me, I have asked this before.

Also, please forgive me, I should know the answers but I do not.

Do we know the size of the universe?

Have we observed its boundaries?

How does multiple universes change our understanding of this universe and the science a but how all of this universe developed?

There are so many questions around this topic that I do not know how to start.

Thanks!

 

[tskrobacz]

Please forgive me, I have asked this before.

Also, please forgive me, I should know the answers but I do not.

Do we know the size of the universe?

Have we observed its boundaries?

How does multiple universes change our understanding of this universe and the science a but how all of this universe developed?

There are so many questions around this topic that I do not know how to start.

Thanks!

We only know what is called the “Light Horizon”…that is we can only “see” the light that has made its way to earth since the Big Bang. Beyond that Horizon the light has not yet arrived so we do not know of its boundaries. We also know that the expansion of the universe is currently accelerating, not decelerating…again, we do not know why. There are theories about muli-verses and some ideas on how to prove/disprove their existence. To my knowledge no one has proven their existence as yet.

 

[Jim_Baur]

tskrobacz

If this is the correct kind of question: considering the “Light Horizon,” why do scientists say that the universe IS 13. 5 billion years old? At least that is the way that I have read and heard it.

Why don’t they say that we believe it to be at least 13. 5 billion years old?

Again, I am not sure how to ask these questions.

Perhaps many scientists do say things similar to what I am asking.

THANKS!!!

 

[Fone_Bone_2001]

I can’t help with most of your questions, but check this link out: it’s The Scale of the Universe. A mind-blowing and eye-opening little presentation of the various sizes of everything that exists.

 

[Joe_5859]

I googled and found this explanation of the age of the universe:

curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=45

I remember doing the math in my college astronomy class, but I forgot how it all worked out.

I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of the whole multiverse thing. I mean, by definition, the “universe” is everything.

It makes for good TV, though.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

tskrobacz

If this is the correct kind of question: considering the “Light Horizon,” why do scientists say that the universe IS 13. 5 billion years old? At least that is the way that I have read and heard it.

Why don’t they say that we believe it to be at least 13. 5 billion years old?

What you tend to hear from lay person’s sources are sound bites and summaries, which end up removing a good bit of information. Instead of making evaluations based on the summaries it might be better to look at one of the works that explains how a number was reached.

One’s personal beliefs are not necessarily relevant. I can say "Under the Lambda-CDM concordance model the universe is at least 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years old " but that tells you nothing about what I believe.

 

[tskrobacz]

tskrobacz

If this is the correct kind of question: considering the “Light Horizon,” why do scientists say that the universe IS 13. 5 billion years old? At least that is the way that I have read and heard it.

Why don’t they say that we believe it to be at least 13. 5 billion years old?

Again, I am not sure how to ask these questions.

Perhaps many scientists do say things similar to what I am asking.

THANKS!!!

As the farthest visible light originated 14.7B? years ago that is the moment generally accepted as the Big Bang. Until something earlier is detected its the best we’ve got! In the event there are multiple universes then even that date is only relative to when our universe emerged from the cosmic soup of universi.

 

[centurionguard]

tskrobacz

If this is the correct kind of question: considering the “Light Horizon,” why do scientists say that the universe IS 13. 5 billion years old? At least that is the way that I have read and heard it.

Why don’t they say that we believe it to be at least 13. 5 billion years old?

Again, I am not sure how to ask these questions.

Perhaps many scientists do say things similar to what I am asking.

THANKS!!!

I guess I always have to give a smile when I see scientist or in this case astrophysicist make huge statements about the mind-boggling size of the universe. My smile is not out of disrespect. We all know there’s very few absolutes in human science with most of anything concluded in science being theorized. A 1000 more years in the future in humanities existence God permitting; human science will have developed far greater sophisticated scientific instuments for measuring the universe. But still like children they’ll still be trying to unravel the ineffable mysteries of God’s creation in what is seeable and that which is hidden beyond the intellectual capacity of mankind.

 

[meltzerboy]

As the farthest visible light originated 14.7B? years ago that is the moment generally accepted as the Big Bang. Until something earlier is detected its the best we’ve got! In the event there are multiple universes then even that date is only relative to when our universe emerged from the cosmic soup of universi.

A bit off-topic (not the size but the origin of the universe), but do most scientists still believe in the Big Bang theory? I thought there was recently some dispute about this as well.

 

[Alberti_Devoveo]

A bit off-topic (not the size but the origin of the universe), but do most scientists still believe in the Big Bang theory? I thought there was recently some dispute about this as well.

The Big Bang theory has yet to fail any test. There are some dissenters, but they are an extreme minority. The theory has been experimentally confirmed 5 times over now, there should be no dispute.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of the whole multiverse thing. I mean, by definition, the “universe” is everything.

It makes for good TV, though.

I don’t like the way it’s used either. If there was found to be a “multiverse” then to me that would be grounds to expand our concept for the word “universe.” But then again the multiverse hypothesis hasn’t been corroborated yet. Then again if we are talking about the observable universe after enough expansion there would be pockets of the universe that would forever be removed from our observational limits effectively isolation our section of the universe from that one. That means there would be two observable universes (ours and the other one we can’t see). Though that is still a sub-section of the universe.

 

[Alberti_Devoveo]

Have we observed its boundaries?

The universe has no boundaries. You might want to look at Klein bottles as an idea of an object with a surface but no boundaries.

How does multiple universes change our understanding of this universe and the science a but how all of this universe developed?

Here is the thing: multiverse theory adds nothing to science. All it does is propose an idea that our universe is not unique, but one of many “successful” universes. It does not give any ideas as to how the universe started or developed–these were known (to some degree, at least) before multiverse theory started coming about.

There are so many questions around this topic that I do not know how to start.

My suggestion would to be read a few books on the material and write questions as they come to you.

 

[Robertanthony]

Two related questions: 1-there’s this idea that objects travelling at the speed of light aren’t subject to time in the same way as an inert object, if so does that change the 15.7 billion years figure? 2- what does the universe expand into? IOW What do we know about the unoccupied “space” that the universe is going to occupy tomorrow or next month? I’m not genetically engineered to have a good grasp of these things, but I’m intrigued nonethelesss.

 

[Alberti_Devoveo]

Two related questions: 1-there’s this idea that objects travelling at the speed of light aren’t subject to time in the same way as an inert object, if so does that change the 15.7 billion years figure? 2- what does the universe expand into? IOW What do we know about the unoccupied “space” that the universe is going to occupy tomorrow or next month? I’m not genetically engineered to have a good grasp of these things, but I’m intrigued nonethelesss.

(1) The only thing that actually travels at the speed of light in vacuum is light itself. Since photons are massless, time dilation does not affect them–technically, to a photon, it is everywhere at once!
(2) No one knows what our universe is expanding into.

 

[Marie1234]

Please forgive me, I have asked this before.

Also, please forgive me, I should know the answers but I do not.

Do we know the size of the universe?

Have we observed its boundaries?

How does multiple universes change our understanding of this universe and the science a but how all of this universe developed?

There are so many questions around this topic that I do not know how to start.

Thanks!

The universe is infinite, as far as we know, there are no boundaries. It’s infinitely expansive, and the same goes the other way. The “building blocks of life/matter” are infinitely small. We’ll never find the “smallest” particle.

We’re somewhere in the middle…kinda scary, eh?

 

[Qoeleth]

Please forgive me, I have asked this before.

Also, please forgive me, I should know the answers but I do not.

Do we know the size of the universe?

Have we observed its boundaries?

How does multiple universes change our understanding of this universe and the science a but how all of this universe developed?

There are so many questions around this topic that I do not know how to start.

Thanks!

I have been told its pretty big. Hundreds and hundred of miles, in fact. Bigger than Texas.

 

[meltzerboy]

I have been told its pretty big. Hundreds and hundred of miles, in fact. Bigger than Texas.

No, not bigger than Texas! Did you ever drive across Texas?

 

[dandingo]

I can’t help with most of your questions, but check this link out: it’s The Scale of the Universe. A mind-blowing and eye-opening little presentation of the various sizes of everything that exists.

That thing is so awesome and really puts things into perspective. That being said, I now have a headache and will probably be a vegetable for the next week. Thanks!

 

[Jim_Baur]

More help, please?

 

[centurionguard]

The universe is infinite, as far as we know, there are no boundaries. It’s infinitely expansive, and the same goes the other way. The “building blocks of life/matter” are infinitely small. We’ll never find the “smallest” particle.

We’re somewhere in the middle…kinda scary, eh?

The universe is infinite, as far as we know, there are no boundaries.

Respectfully; I wouldn’t say the Universe as humans know it is infinite, mind-boggling in shear size that it is and for the most part lacks full understanding as a whole since human science can only theorize its expansiveness.

Only God our Creator is truly Infinite in the truist sense. Everything seen and unseen in creation is His artwork as if a vast painting on a canvass inconceivably mesmerizing even to His greatest of Angels. All creation outside of the infiniteness of God alone has a beginning and an end. God has neither a beginning nor end being Eternal.

Being a small sub-atomic like creature called a human being I neither have the mind or the intellect of understanding God’s majestic infinite inexplicable vastness. But like a infant like child behold such creation in wonderment and complete awe.

Just the fact of God revealing His name ** I AM WHO AM** is a wonderment on its own.
Truly then in speaking of God and His artwork of Creation How Great Thou Art.