gosub
~#
Astronomers found a giant “wall” of galaxies hiding in plain sight
The South Pole Wall is 1.4 billion light-years long, and was only found thanks to a special technique normally used to find dark matter.
(H) edge of Universe found
- Thread starter gosub
- Start date
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
" It’s so close! The South Pole Wall is just half a billion light-years away. "
Isn't this more like finding the garden fence rather than the edge of the universe?
Isn't this more like finding the garden fence rather than the edge of the universe?
gosub
~#
hattipA hedge of the universe?
Mrs Miggins
There's been a slight cheese accident
Wish I had any idea at all what that is and what it means 
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Wish I had any idea at all what that is and what it means
Astronomers have discovered a vast collection of galaxies that was previously unknown due to being blocked out by the glare from our own galaxy. Improvements in telescopes and data processing techniques enable observatories to discover objects that would previously have been lost in the noise.
As for what it means, it's another dataset that will be useful in building more accurate models of the universe.
Mrs Miggins
There's been a slight cheese accident
I find it absolutely mind blowing. That it all just seems to go on forever and ever.
Being an earthbound human, I find it very difficult to conceive of spaces not being contained. So where is the edge? What is the edge? And then there has to be something beyond that. Inifinity is a very difficult thing to imagine.
I also find it way more interesting, magical and fantastic than any kind of god.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
My understanding is that as far we know, there is no "edge" to the universe. There's a limit to how far out we can observe stuff, but that is entirely a product of our viewpoint rather than being a physical limitation on the size of the universe.
Even if it turns out that the universe is not infinite, there wouldn't necessarily be an edge in that case either. As far as cosmologists can tell, space as a whole is "flat", meaning that it is the three-dimensional equivalent of an infinite plane. In such a flat geometry, parallel lines never meet and the interior angles of an equilateral triangle add up to precisely 180 degrees. However this may just mean that the curvature of space is too small for us to currently detect. It may be the case that the curvature of the universe is positive, in which case the universe is "closed" (finite), but like the surface of a sphere, there is no edge. Parallel lines will eventually converge in such a universe, and the sum of a triangle's interior angles will add up to more than 180 degrees.
Here is a transcript of an interesting lecture on the subject, complete with diagrams.
Iirc this episode of Horizon covered this in easy to understand language.My understanding is that as far we know, there is no "edge" to the universe. There's a limit to how far out we can observe stuff, but that is entirely a product of our viewpoint rather than being a physical limitation on the size of the universe.
Even if it turns out that the universe is not infinite, there wouldn't necessarily be an edge in that case either. As far as cosmologists can tell, space as a whole is "flat", meaning that it is the three-dimensional equivalent of an infinite plane. In such a flat geometry, parallel lines never meet and the interior angles of an equilateral triangle add up to precisely 180 degrees. However this may just mean that the curvature of space is too small for us to currently detect. It may be the case that the curvature of the universe is positive, in which case the universe is "closed" (finite), but like the surface of a sphere, there is no edge. Parallel lines will eventually converge in such a universe, and the sum of a triangle's interior angles will add up to more than 180 degrees.
Here is a transcript of an interesting lecture on the subject, complete with diagrams.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Link is broken?
It was called How big is the universe? There appeared to be a few streams on Dailymotion but I didn't actually check if any worked.
lefteri
Well-Known Member
My understanding is that as far we know, there is no "edge" to the universe. There's a limit to how far out we can observe stuff, but that is entirely a product of our viewpoint rather than being a physical limitation on the size of the universe.
Even if it turns out that the universe is not infinite, there wouldn't necessarily be an edge in that case either. As far as cosmologists can tell, space as a whole is "flat", meaning that it is the three-dimensional equivalent of an infinite plane. In such a flat geometry, parallel lines never meet and the interior angles of an equilateral triangle add up to precisely 180 degrees. However this may just mean that the curvature of space is too small for us to currently detect. It may be the case that the curvature of the universe is positive, in which case the universe is "closed" (finite), but like the surface of a sphere, there is no edge. Parallel lines will eventually converge in such a universe, and the sum of a triangle's interior angles will add up to more than 180 degrees.
Here is a transcript of an interesting lecture on the subject, complete with diagrams.
oh here we go, another one of those flat universers...
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