what is beyond the known universe?

Considering the sum extent of what we can actually claim to have a fairly good handle on accounts for a whole 4% of the so-called "known" Universe, frankly we actually know virtually dick about the wherever the hell it is we actually are, let alone what's beyond the next horizon.

Granted, 4% of what may conceivably amount to infinity itself counts as a very great deal of dick to be intimately acquainted with by anyones standards - certainly, you wouldn't want it all turning up on your doorstep late at night ringing your doorbell and demanding to know you if you really do know the way to San Hosé at 3 o'clock in the morning - but still, 4% doesn't count towards knowing particularly much.

That's possibly what makes it all so very interesting to begin with...

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Guessing what's beyond the known universe? Does it really matter? If so, in what way will it affect us?

 

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Fraggle:

Perhaps a better choice of word is "theorized" rather than "believed". In any event, it is not 'testable' in the usual sense, so one can only deduce what exists beyond the "brehmstrahlung opacity wall" as I've read of it referred to by astronomers.

What is testable, however, is that over time the cosmic microwave background radiation should become increasingly more redshifted, as we detect that type of matter at an increasingly greater distance. Whether that slight change would be measurable over the course of a few decades, or whether it might require millions of years before we could measure a difference between the background as we detect it today, compared to what the background would be one million years in the future, is debatable. Certainly, it would take better instrumentation than used thus far. Of course, you and I won't be around to do the measurements, either!

And no, this does not go beyond the Big Bang theory. Rather, it explains it more clearly. It still leaves unaswered the basic question as to what started the process that led to the ability for a four-dimensional 'finite bubble' to emerge in a sea of infinite energy, which is essentially what the Universe can be described as, as well. That 'finite bubble' of space-time in which we exist reflects the basic properties of physics that are operable throughout the Universe, and some writers have referred to it as being on the inside of a singularity.

We can also deduce that the mass/energy beyond the brehmstrahlung opacity wall has, within its own separate reference frame, evolved into galaxies much like our own, just as we can deduce that galaxies some 10 billion lights years away (which we see as they were 10 billion years ago) have evolved into more aged systems with 3rd or 4th generation stars such as our Sun, etc., and indeed possibly capable of having evolved life. Whether such life has evolved in the finite portion of the Universe we can detect via telescopes is debatable. Whether such life has evolved more than once in an infinite Universe is also debatable, but I believe it almost certainly has. Since those are questions we cannot answer directly with physics, they only remain 'answerable' in the realm of religion and philosophy (unless ET decides to pay a visit to you at your house).

 

Well, I thought physicists looked at it this way:

Imagine yourself in a wireframe cube. This cube represents what we will call one "unit" of spacetime (1 stu). There are cubes adjacent to every face of your cube. There are an infinite number of these cubes, making up an infinite three-dimensional grid. This is the universe.

The current time is T = 0. The infinite universe consists of what amounts to a sea of energy. Unimaginably hot and dense.

Something happens (the big ?) and what was 1 stu begins expanding. Rediculously fast by current standards. Faster than 'c' in vacuo. This is "inflation". Every cube - the infinity of "cubes" that is the universe - is changing its metric.

Now each of these arbitrary "cubes" can be subdivided into any number of cubes you would like. From the perspective of any given cube, the matter and energy in all other cubes is moving away from you.

Currently T = +13.5by or thereabouts. From the perspective of our "cube" all non-local matter is moving away from us. We can only see as far as light has had the chance to travel in this time. This is called our "Hubble Horizon" and defines our "Hubble Volume".

The major point here is that there is an arbitrary "cube" at every point in the infinity of "cubes" (the infinite universe). There is a "Hubble Volume" centered on every one of these arbitrary cubes. Thus, if you think of the universe as all that there is or ever was, and that the "Big Bang" was equivalent to the actual metric of space and time "expanding" everywhere, all at once, I think you'll have a pretty good idea of the current state of affairs.

 

Now they (CNN) say's the universe is 'Oval' or 'Pill' shaped. Cubes anyone?

 

Is that all you have to say about my post? I didn't say anything about the curvature of spacetime (shape of the universe). I was just using a cube as a representative of an arbitrary volume.

 

Sounds good to me. I'll put a couple in my glass of orange juice just to be sure.

 

Beyond known universe in unknown universe.

 

Beyond known universe is nothingness. empty vacuum. no other worlds.

 

Yes but.

I have serious personal opinions adverse to the standard model big bang theory, but will not go any further on that tack here and now.

In terms of the BB, at any very early moment, ALL that existed was a relatively small sphere of vacuum, false vacuum and mass/energy. Nothing else. At one moment the entire known and knowable universe was the size of a bb. (Pun unintentional but welcomed when I noticed it ).

I think that I am agreeing with you, at least, I am not intending to disagree with you. It just seems to me that at a certain point we run out of science moxie and then must turn to religion and philosophy to acquire further understanding. I believe that this thread is a venture into a field that we cannot explore with pure science. However, I believe that it is a VERY important thing that this question should be contemplated in a science context.

 

Can there ever truely be nothing?

 

Can there ever truely be nothing?

 

In my humble opinion ( I have one? ), If there ever was absolutely nothing, then there never could be, coming from absolutely nothing, anything. Yet, here we are. At least, I know that I am here.

 

That implies that the Universe has a spherical geometry. I've heard that most astronomers and physicists now work on the assumption that the Universe has a hyperbolic geometry, wherein the Universe is finite, but if you continue to travel you will travel forever. There is an infinite amount of space within the Universe, but the Universe isn't infinite.

Very simply, anything which is beyond the known Universe is unknown. How can you expect anyone here to know what is beyond the known Universe? If they could answer that question, then it wouldn't be beyond the known Universe, would it?

 

I don't think we have even glimpsed the edge of the known universe yet, let alone knowing or even guessing what's beyond it.

 

I think I'll post some inane ramblings about my ideas on what's beyond the universe.

I think there's a land of giant popsicle fairies who fling fairy dung at each other all day long.

 

Listen. There is nothing "beyond" the "known" universe because the universe is infinite in extent and all that there is. There is no "within" the universe or "outside" the universe.

 

OMG! I got it. Beyond the known universe there is nothing if we look currently (through telescope) beyond the known the universe. However if we were right now beyond the known universe, then we would be in that unknown universe. Why? Because universe is expanding so it will fill up that unknown space in the universe. And we dont see that unknown universe which will later become known because light takes time to travel, so what we actually see is the past of current at that space.