• Question: do you think there is an end to space and if so what do you think is after it?

    Asked by anon-187920 to Warren, Shanti, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 8 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Nadine Mirza

      Nadine Mirza answered on 8 Nov 2018: last edited 8 Nov 2018 4:36 pm

      I think the theory behind space and the universe is that technically there is no end because the universe keeps expanding infinitely. There’s a lot of wondering about if the universe is expanding where is it expanding into and this article talks lots about that: https://www.livescience.com/33646-universe-edge.html

    • Photo: Alex Reid

      Alex Reid answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Great question. It is not my area but our current understanding of space is that is ‘curved’ in that if you went in one direction long enough you would eventually end up back in the same spot. A logical extension of this is that it actually means that every point in space is the centre of the universe, even where you are sitting right now, which is kind of cool if you think about it!

      At the same time, as Nadine says, the universe is expanding and galaxies are slowly drifting apart. How can something expand if it has no ‘edge’? The best way to think about it is if you put a bunch of dots on a balloon and blow it up. If you walked along the surface of the balloon you would still come back to where you started, but at the same time, if you are blowing it up the dots would get further and further apart.

    • Photo: Paul Matusz

      Paul Matusz answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      This is not my area, but as Nadine and Alex, I think that universe is infinite, and is actually constantly expanding. At the same time, I think there are theories suggest that at some point the expansion and universe will stop, because of the distance between different objects, and so the universe will cease to be..

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