Scale of the universe

[Mryzyz]

I made a daft mistake. The actual universe is thought to be 10^23 times larger than the observable universe, which has a diameter of 9.3 X 10^10 light years. I lazily just multiplied the two numbers which is obviously wrong.

Look what I found!

Just read that if you want the answers, don't ask me

 

[Jen]

I think it is wise to assume that the piffling small little creature that is 'Man' will never have the faintest idea of how big the Universe is, nor his affect on it, if any - bearing in mind the average humanoid can no longer read a map and relies on Satnav (just to get to the shops), I think that the rest of World is safe for now

 

[Sarinaide]

I had a post (or thought I did) about how do scientists know exactly the scale of the universe, or if not exactly a certain estimate as to the scale of the universe, considering we have barely explored our immediate solar system?

It is an interesting question, normally I am a science man and agnostic but sometimes sciences is baffling.

 

[jez101]

The actual universe is thought to be 10^23 times larger than the observable universe

It says "at least 10^23 times larger", although if it is not space beyond that then you have to ask what it is instead.

It also says that space is flat - I wonder where you get to if you just go up or down then?

I think the answer might be the same as to the question "what went bang 13.75 billion years ago?" If anyone knows...?

 

[Jen]

......... but sometimes sciences is baffling.

Invariably because scientists are blinkered, thereby baffling themselves - their very worst characteristic is their inability to say 'sorry, I was wrong', so they continue down the same path, trying to justify their ill-found conclusions and, in so doing, creating misconception and public distrust.

 

[sushifiesta]

It's impossible to comprehend the size of the universe but what's just as mind boggling is the behaviour that starts to emerge at the level of atoms, neutrons/protons and then quarks, i.e. quantum physics and particle physics. The world of the smallest known objects is completely different to the world we know. For example, atoms are more than 99% empty space and yet the world we live in is very nice and solid (thankfully).

Science is necessarily baffling at times, there's a reason why researches have to go through ~7 years of uni (to get an undergraduate degree and phd). Frankly if you look around you, from the screen you're reading this on to electric lights to cars etc. etc. there's very little in modern society that doesn't have science and scientists to thank so I don't think they deserve the amount of criticism they get. From my limited experience scientists spend most of their time saying 'sorry, I was wrong' before getting to the correct answer.

 

[Sarinaide]

I have a really scientific calculation of the size of the universe......methinks it is pretty damn big.

 

[Fenderman]

Take the first thing you ever thought of and multiply that by itself. Multiply the result by itself and keep doing that until you are totally confused. Then, using that result as the starting point, use the same methodology until you really can't waste any more time on the problem. It's at this point, if not before, that you may decide that this is a pointless exercise. Correct! What is the scale of the universe? How long is a piece of string theory string? Would you rather watch an F1 race or watch paint dry?(assuming it's not a paint drying F1 race, that is).

So, using Sarinade's formula which is considerably better than my own I have come up with an answer: Immense

 

[jez101]

So, using Sarinade's formula which is considerably better than my own I have come up with an answer: Immense

Mind-bogglingly immense

 

[LJKSet]

A good explanation of the expansion of the Universe is to imagine space as a balloon. Everything in Space is on the outside of the balloon, which is, in itself, pretty one dimensional (flat). Try drawing a few dots on a deflated balloon to represent stars, planets etc. As you inflate the balloon, all points on the balloon get pushed further apart. The action of inflating the balloon represents the Big Bang. Everything moves outwards away from the centre of the balloon and hence futher apart. So Space can be viewed as an inflating balloon of unknown elasticity. Short cuts such as wormholes would be represented by a passage from one side of the balloon to the other via the central cavity. Of course, nobody knows what is beyond the expanding universe, though presumably the partial vacuum that we call the universe is expanding into (even being sucked onto?) a total vacuum surrounding it.

I have a bit of a problem with the theory that everything in the Universe originated as a piece of matter the size of a football.

 

[Sarinaide]

I was watching "Event Horizon" and I am thinking, if we had the capacity to travel at light speed or to fold space time, we would have a lot more answers than questions........

As such I really don't know how they arrived at these answers considering we know nothing of our own solar system.. I get edgy when a scientist says it is so big or this is a habitable planet.............really just say you think in may be so or you estimate it.......science as much as I am a child of science and human development/progression/agnostic I think that we perhaps try to hard to be masters of the universe.

 

[MCLS]

Some scientists reckon that eventually the universe will stop expanding and start getting smaller leading to the Big Crunch, (sounds like some cereal)

 

[sushifiesta]

There is now proof that the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing though. If the galaxies were only acting under gravity then the big crunch is what you would expect (like throwing a ball in the air, it reaches a maximum height and then comes back down to where it started). As this isn't the case there must be some force that is driving the expansion of the universe.

What this force is no one really knows but Physicists call it "Dark Energy". To recreate what is observed "Dark Energy" and "Dark Matter" must form 96% of the contents of the universe, i.e. only 4% of the universe consists of the ordinary stuff that we're made of and (as of yet) no one knows what the other 96% is!!!

 

[Sarinaide]

I enjoy the documentaries about space and our universe/galaxy.

I saw something on NatGeo/Discovery that related to two galaxies on a head on collision course which will unleash a cataclysmic event of mega proportions that could kill us. (this sounds all to much like the Universes version of a Monaco GP)

I must say the first time I heard of dark matter and stuff of that ilk was due to the Angels and Demons movie....(I think I will stick to laymans movies aka the hangover.)

 

[sushifiesta]

I must say the first time I heard of dark matter and stuff of that ilk was due to the Angels and Demons movie....(I think I will stick to laymans movies aka the hangover.)

I may be wrong but I think you're thinking about anti-matter their which is different to dark matter (having said that no one really understands where all the anti-matter in the universe has gone either lol). Anti-matter looks the same as 'ordinary' matter but with some things opposite like charge (so an anti-electron, or 'positron', has charge +1). When matter and anti-matter come together they 'annihilate' into pure energy, and from what I remember in the book some weirdo is attempting to chuck a chunk of antimatter at the vatican so it goes BOOM?!

I'm starting to scare myself with all this crap I'm coming out with...

 

[Speshal]

Interestingly enough scientists at CERN have managed to trap anti-matter for 15 minutes which doesn't sound that impressive until you consider the longest time before that was in the fractions of a second band as it disappears as soon as it comes into contact with regular matter.

This explains it a bit

 

[jez101]

“half of the universe has gone missing, so some kind of rethink is apparently on the agenda. ”

CERN Press Office

 

[Sarinaide]

“half of the universe has gone missing, so some kind of rethink is apparently on the agenda.

Maybe missing in one of them black holes.

 

[Bill Boddy]

One thing that does seem certain is that the rest of the universe is moving away from us at a great rate of knots. They're probably running away from internet forums.

 

[Sarinaide]

One thing that does seem certain is that the rest of the universe is moving away from us at a great rate of knots. They're probably running away from internet forums.

Running away or gravity sweeping it away like a sea current. I have been led to believe the contrary, that our galaxy and another is on a head on collision, with no safety belts.