What is past outer space?
If you just keep going what is past the furthest reaches of space?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
51 Answers
Well if Brian Greene and company are right… Then a parallel universe.
This is one of those big questions that people can theorize about, but nobody knows for sure. Some say that you’d just go in a big circle if you try to do that, what with how gravity curves space. That’s the explanation I favor. The edge of space is, seemingly by definition, the edge of space.
You may enjoy reading the answers here.
A realm of spaceless-ness.
Infinite space, there is no end to the universe. Watch ” The Black Whole” by Nassim Haremien
You’re imagining an “edge” or boundary to the universe because that’s your frame of reference. Maybe it’s a hard thing to contemplate, but imagine a place where, wherever you go in it, you really are at the Center of the Universe.
Nothing. You can’t get past the end of it, anyhow. First off, you could never reach it, ever. Ever. Ever. And if you did, it would be like walking around the Earth. You would eventually find yourself back where you started. @WasCy was right….there is no edge. It’s super hard to imagine, almost impossible….
@WasCy is correct. The universe isn’t some “sphere” where you hit a wall.
and I suppose the further inward we go we will find more of the same….on a subatomic level
Only two possibilities-boundary or inifinite.
Since the matter of the universe has been expanding for a really long time, and has run into nothing yet, it seems more likely that it is infiinite.
Anyway, it is unlikely that humanity will know one way or the other.
Outside of the box space. Don’t go there unless you are well equipped!
More space. Or a parallel universe.
more infinity with no seafloor
Or you would never know because you’re going so far out that you get lost, run out of oxygen, and die.
The universe is “finite but unbounded,” to use a very old cosmological term. You don’t hit any walls. In the simplest models it’s a hypersphere or hyper-pseudosphere. It may be possible to travel far enough in a straight line to return to your starting point.
“Outer space” being space beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s everywhere the universe is. The observable universe is thought to have a diameter on the order of 10^11 light years (Ref.)
I know what you mean though…even after you know that there really is no “end”....it’s not a planet with boundaries almost like I, personally, picture it in my head….it still seems like if the universe is expanding, it’s expanding into something that is already there….but it’s not….everything that is is what is expanding…ya know? God I can’t get over how fuckin crazy it is.
Um, inner space! Don’t go there. Very scary place.
Truth told, we don’t know if there is an end to space-time or if it is infinite. If it isn’t infinite, then it is all that is. @RealEyesRealizeRealLies answer of “a realm of spaceless-ness” is about right. It wouldn’t be anything specific and measurabel, and it wouldn’t really be nothing either. For all human intents, it simply wouldn’t exist untithe expanding universe created it. @deni put it more scientifically, but same idea.
Currently, astronomers are saying that spacetime on the large scale in our observable universe is flat to within the precision they can measure it. If it is exactly flat, and our portion of the universe is representative of the whole, then space is infinite. They cannot rule out a slight positive curvature that (again, if it holds for the whole universe and not just the portion we observe) would indicate a finite and closed universe. Neither can they rule out a slight negative curvature that would result in a infinite hyperbolic universe.
There is no past beyond space in which the what would be.
There is no edge of the universe, is there?
Oh perfect @Rarebear. Just what I needed for my late night image editing. Thanks!
Guacamole.
Okay, actually not. Once you pass the final objects in space, you simply have a void ahead.
However, this is theoretical, and will always be such. We will never travel far enough to say for sure.
The size and age of the universe is far beyond my tiny feeble brain to comprehend. It is an intriguing and fascinating concept. And fortunately others before me were more successful in explaining their thoughts than I.
“The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet on the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land.” -T. H. Huxley, 1887
“Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us, There is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.” – Carl Sagon
@dannyc I was thinking Jim Morrison! lol
This seems to be a question for The Doctor… :]
@Rarebear That’s an extraordinarily good link. I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for posting it.
Well, after listening to the podcast, it is very clear to me that we are all sitting on a flat silicon wafer in the midst of somebody’s discarded Mac IIc.
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Damn, I thought we were sprinkles on a doughnut and I had big plans to go down to Duncan Donuts tomorrow and eat the Universe.
I’m not getting up in the morning if I’m essentially still going to be technically horizontal
An endless dark void…in short…NOTHING
Heed the wisdom of the lowly chicken.. What is past outer space? The other side.
I believe that it is still not determined whether the universe is infinite or finite. To imagine a finite space, think of a two dimensional universe on the surface of a sphere. The two dimensional inhabitants of this universe will never see an edge. What they think of as a straight line is a curve following the contour of the sphere. Mathematically, this is described as being finite but unbounded.
For us, a finite universe would be analogous to the three dimensional surface of a four dimensional object. We can never reach a boundary, because there is no boundary.
@Roby “in short…NOTHING”
That’s the point…
This sounds crazy to those who don’t study linguistics. “NOTHING” = NO+THING.
Materialists consider “THING“s, as physical objects which abide by rules of the physical universe. Thus, no+thing is a lack of physicality altogether. Concepts of “short” and “the other side” do not apply. It’s like asking what’s North of the North Pole. No+Thing.
Now the Immaterialist expands the concept of what a “Thing” can be. Emotions and Thoughts can be things which lack materialism and therefor are not bound by rules of physicality. To one who considers thought to be a simple assemblage of neurochemicals, this is unacceptable. But to one who understands thought as separate from the neurochemicals which represent them in physicality, it makes perfect sense.
This “flatness” of the known universe is literally a “plane of existence”. Like a silicon wafer in a computer, where information is pushed around amongst hurdles of entropic distortion. But the flat wafer is only a physical representation of the thoughts of whom designed it.
If you imagine a powerful telescope that can see beyond the furthest galaxies and beyond the primordial soup at the start of the Universe you would eventually see the back of your own head.
@Rarebear , That is a good link. Note that it says that the universe can be still be finite even though it has been shown to be flat. One possibility they suggest is that it could be a four dimensional toroid (doughnut)
I love this question because I always thought about that too!
I always fantasize that maybe beyond space is another dimension of some sort, where things are absorbed, or where we cease to exist.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
