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Asked by anon-252493 to Stav, Sarah-May, Rosanna, Miriam, Catherine, Anne on 7 May 2020.
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Stav Zalel answered on 7 May 2020:
That’s a great question, and the answer is: we don’t know! Physicists study different models of the universe. In some of these models space has an end and in some it doesn’t. Data from astronomical observations (like light from stars) seems to be compatible with infinite space, but other models are not ruled out so this question is still up for exploring.
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Miriam Hogg answered on 7 May 2020:
So if you were just dropped into the middle of space, you would very slowly fall towards the nearest object. Space is full of gravity from nearby objects so you would be pulled towards one of those (probably the biggest nearby object as it has the most gravity).
If you chose a direction and gave yourself some speed you would never reach the ‘edge’ of the universe as its continually expanding in every direction. The theory is that you would need to move faster than light to beat the expansion of the universe, but even so I dont think there is an edge, some scientists think it wraps around on itself and so you would just end up on the other side. In short no-one really knows! There are a few different theories and they’re all very interesting and mind bending
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Anne Green answered on 7 May 2020:
As Stav said, we don’t know if the universe goes on for ever or not. However it’s definitely much, much bigger than the distance you could travel in a spaceship in your lifetime.
Comments
anon-252493 commented on :
Thx !
olegshebanits commented on :
To add to Stav’s answer:
One of the possibilities is that the universe is finite, but without a boundary, so that if you travel in one direction you will eventually come back from the opposite side – as if you were walking on a surface of a balloon and came back to starting point. Cosmology is quite a mind-boggling field!