The Scale of the Universe

[Ancient lion]

God is Greater, He is the creator and we r just "localised" type of creatures !

 

[Middleoftheroad]

Fantastic - wonder what is outside the estimated size of the Universe....

There is actually no estimated size for the universe (U). The picture in the scale is what is referred to as the observable U. One of the many questions in physics is whether the universe is actually infinite in size, or finite with no boundaries.

 

[Montrovant]

Fantastic - wonder what is outside the estimated size of the Universe....

There is actually no estimated size for the universe (U). The picture in the scale is what is referred to as the observable U. One of the many questions in physics is whether the universe is actually infinite in size, or finite with no boundaries.

If you assume the big bang occurred, couldn't you estimate the size of the universe based on the speed of light and the estimated age of the universe? The universe is estimated to be 10 billion years old, so it is estimated to be 20 billion light years in diameter, something like that. Of course, I'm not sure where you get an estimate on the age of the universe, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it done.

 

[Douger]

To think. It's only 6000 years old and still growing !

 

[The Infidel]

To think. It's only 6000 years old and still growing !

 

[Middleoftheroad]

Fantastic - wonder what is outside the estimated size of the Universe....

There is actually no estimated size for the universe (U). The picture in the scale is what is referred to as the observable U. One of the many questions in physics is whether the universe is actually infinite in size, or finite with no boundaries.

If you assume the big bang occurred, couldn't you estimate the size of the universe based on the speed of light and the estimated age of the universe? The universe is estimated to be 10 billion years old, so it is estimated to be 20 billion light years in diameter, something like that. Of course, I'm not sure where you get an estimate on the age of the universe, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it done.

minor correction, the U is estimated to be 14B years old, and unfortunetly, no you cannot calculate it that way. A few main problems arise from this.
1) The big bang occured everywhere in the universe and there is no center. Everything is moving away from everything else, not away from a single point. This actually makes every point the center of the U, and it is actually possible to show mathematically that the universe could have started infinite in size and still be expanding, while still having a big bang.
2) The very beginning of the universe it is thought that the universe went through a phase called inflation whereas the U actually grew at speeds much greater then the speed of light.
3) expansion of the U is not bound by the speed of light as space is not really considered to be a physical property. Mathematically it is just described as a changing of angles.

 

[FA_Q2]

Very nice.