• Question: is there an end to the universe?

    Asked by ry12 to Antonia, Douglas, Hugh, Matt, Tom on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by batman.
    • Photo: Matthew Hurley

      Matthew Hurley answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      NOTHING lasts forever I suppose. But think of this (it makes my head hurt) – what if the universe didn’t exist? What would there be left?

    • Photo: Hugh Roderick

      Hugh Roderick answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Don’t know

    • Photo: Douglas Blane

      Douglas Blane answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Nobody knows for sure. The full answer is one of the hardest things to get your head round in science.

      1. The universe either goes on forever – it’s infinite – or it doesn’t. Right?

      2. But if it doesn’t go on forever there must be an edge. But if there’s an edge there must be something beyond. So that’s the universe too. So it can’t have an edge.

      The flaw with 2. is that we’re thinking about the space we know. And space when it gets really big might be different. It might be like the surface of a ball but in 3-dimensions.

      You can run your finger round the surface of a ball or sail right round the world by going in one direction. And you might be able to go right round the universe by going in one direction too. Go far enough and you get back where you started.

      That kind of universe is called “closed but unbounded”. So it doesn’t go on forever but it’s not infinite. It comes back on itself.

      Yeah, I know. Makes my head hurt too.

    • Photo: Tom Hardy

      Tom Hardy answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Now this is a little outside of my subject area, but I am a huge Star Trek fan (but that is a secret) and I also like films like “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” so I think I can give you one view. I would say no there is not an end to the universe. I think of space as just that, a big load of nothing and nothing can’t really have an end. Can it?

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