Size Questions of the Universe
What is the Size of the Universe? How big is the universe? How large? Is the universe infinite? What is beyond the universe? What is the boundary or edge of this universe?
The Size of the Universe and Beyond
What size is the Universe or how big is the universe? Common questions are how large is the entire Universe and is the universe infinite? What is beyond the boundary of the Universe? For the size, we must ask, do you mean the observable universe, the 3rd dimension or the entire Universe? I will answer the known size and then discuss the various areas and the source of the entire Universe.
This is a Hubble telescope image of a dark area in the universe.
How Large is the known Universe?
To us humans the Earth can seem large. Imagine how big it is for ants? Size matters especially when we think in terms of size.
About 1000 years ago people thought that Earth was the center of the universe. They were afraid to venture far across the oceans for fear of falling off the planet.
Most of us know that the sun is the center of our solar system. And most of us know the Earth is round and we won’t fall off the edge, except for the Flat Earth people. If you believe the world is flat stop reading now or you might blow a fuse.
To measure the universe we need a tool that gives reliable and accurate results. This tool is the speed of light and time. The size of the visible universe is measured in light years.
A light year is the distance light travels in one year. It is about 3 x 10^8 meters per second x 60 seconds x 60 minutes x 24 hours x 365 days for a distance of 94,608,000 x 10^8 meters. That’s about 9,460,000,000 kilometers.
One light year is a distance of 9,460 million kilometers. Because we use the speed of light and a time of one year we calculate this relationship as Space-Time. If you know the distance you know how long it takes to travel there at the speed of light. If you know how long light traveled to get here you know the distance.
The distance from Earth to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is about 4.24 light-years. Andromeda Galaxy is 2.2 million light years away. So, the light we see from the Andromeda Galaxy arriving here today, left 2.2 million years ago.
It has been measured that the distance to the observable edge of the Universe is 46 billion light-years. Therefore, the diameter of the visible universe is 93 billion light-years.
That means we will never see the light from these places as they exist today. They are too far away!
How to measure the size of the universe?
Many tools are used for a different range of distances. Parallax is when you look at an object with one eye and than use your other eye. You see the object in a different place. This is how rangefinders work for distances we can visibly see.
The Range to the Solar System and our Galaxy
Solar distances are calculated using this same method but on a much larger scale. They measure the position of a star or planet and 6 months later measure the same object again. Then using trigonometry to plot the distance based on the size of Earth's orbit and the angle of light measurements.
However, the farther away a star is, the smaller the angle of measurement so this method gets less accurate. The next range method is based on the intensity of star light.
The Range up to 80 Million Years
A group of stars called Cepheids are common and very bight. These stars twinkle growing dimmer and brighter in a regular pattern. Bright cepheids have a shorter pulsation period because they are closer to us. By comparing the time of the pulses and the brightness of the star they calculate the distance. This method is used for up to 80 million light-years.
The Range to Galaxies
The next range of measurements uses stars that die during a supernova reaction. When a giant star uses up its supply of fuel there is a massive explosion. This fireball allows astronomers to calculate the brightness of the explosion. Thus the approximate distance to the Galaxy where that star exploded.
The Range using the Redshift of Galaxies
At much greater distances into billions of light-years astronomers measure the redshift of light. The Hubble Constant is a unit of the expansion of the universe. The Hubble Constant is about 73 kilometers per second for each 3.3 million light-years.
By measuring the Redshift of Galaxies they calculate how fast the universe is expanding. We are like spots on the surface of a balloon. When this universe expands those spots move away from each other. Dark Matter is the reason why the universe is not only expanding but accelerating.
The Final Range of the CMB
The final distance measuring tool is the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). About 380,000 years after the Big Bang the leftover radiation is the CMB. This is the oldest radiation detected in the dark space between galaxies. Therefore, the age of the universe is about 13.8 billion years.
Extrapolating Farther
However the radius of the visible universe isn’t 13.8 billion light-years because of the Hubble Constant. During the 13.8 million years it took light to reach us from the CMB, the universe has been expanding.
Using the Hubble constant gives us an estimate that the universe now has a radius of 46 light-years and a diameter of 92 billion light-years. I suspect this is the wrong assumption because our 3rd dimension is expanding into the 4th and 5th dimensions.
Black Holes move matter into higher dimensions which we call dark energy and dark matter.
In the 6th dimension matter and antimatter annihilate in a Big Bang ending the Universe.
More Interesting Topics
We are learning that the size of the universe can mean many different sizes. But, since we have looked at the current size we should accept the fact that the universe is not infinite. The Big Bang created the Universe from outside of our visible Universe. This tells us 2 things, that there are other dimensions and that where there is a birth there is always a death.
The dimensions of this creation.
The Nothingness of Creation
Nothing is a difficult idea to explain. If I say nothing about it you can imagine the rest is also nothing. Think about it without time and space. I call it Absolute Space. I imagine it as a dimension where universes exist. Maybe many Universes like our own floating and evolving in a dimension of nothingness.
In this model the edge or boundary of our universe expands into this non physical dimension. So, it doesn’t matter how fast or how far you go into the nothingness.
Absolute Space has no size and isn’t physical yet inside nothingness is intelligence. It has consciousness, wisdom and energy.
From this non physical dimension came the Big Bang that created the Universe. And into this dimension our physical universe will go back as the same energy that our Source sent us. Yes, another Big Bang to end this creation.
https://Lovinthings.com
If you feel that this information resonates with you, please subscribe to my free blog.
As always, be well and thanks for being here.
