Most astronomers believe that we live in a low-density Universe in which a mysterious substance known as '
Most cosmological evidence points to the universe's density as being just right — the equivalent of around six protons per 1.3 cubic yards — and that it expands in every direction without curving positively or negatively. In other words, the universe is flat.
Among physicists, it's not controversial. Our universe is but one in an unimaginably massive ocean of universes called … the multiverse. If that concept isn't enough to get your head around, physics describes different kinds of multiverse.
The Stelliferous Era, is defined as, "6 < n < 14". This is the current era, in which matter is arranged in the form of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters, and most energy is produced in stars.
Therefore, our universe is called the cosmos.
Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.
The world as we know it has three dimensions of space—length, width and depth—and one dimension of time. But there's the mind-bending possibility that many more dimensions exist out there. According to string theory, one of the leading physics model of the last half century, the universe operates with 10 dimensions.
We currently have no evidence that multiverses exists, and everything we can see suggests there is just one universe — our own.
Ellis says that scientists have proposed the idea of the multiverse as a way of explaining the nature of existence. He points out that it ultimately leaves those questions unresolved because it is a metaphysical issue that cannot be resolved by empirical science.
Space is indeed curved -- in four dimensions. Many people think the fourth dimension is simply time, and for some astronomical equations, it is. Einstein used time as a fourth dimension to describe a coordinate system called space-time.
The trite answer is that both space and time were created at the big bang about 14 billion years ago, so there is nothing beyond the universe. However, much of the universe exists beyond the observable universe, which is maybe about 90 billion light years across.
We could think of the universe as a sphere expanding indefinitely and infinitely. Or it might curve and bend in ways that could make it a closed system (like a donut), where if you were to travel in a straight line for long enough, eventually you'd end up back where you started: space would be finite.
As it stands, the universe is the largest object that we are aware of. There is nothing larger, and everything we can smell, hear, taste, touch, or see is a part of it.
pantheism, the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe.
Our universe began with an explosion of space itself - the Big Bang. Starting from extremely high density and temperature, space expanded, the universe cooled, and the simplest elements formed. Gravity gradually drew matter together to form the first stars and the first galaxies.
Even though certain features of the universe seem to require the existence of a multiverse, nothing has been directly observed that suggests it actually exists. So far, the evidence supporting the idea of a multiverse is purely theoretical, and in some cases, philosophical.
Observations suggest that the expansion of the universe will continue forever. The prevailing theory is that the universe will cool as it expands, eventually becoming too cold to sustain life. For this reason, this future scenario once popularly called "Heat Death" is now known as the "Big Chill" or "Big Freeze".
Pet peeve alert: contrary to assertions in some bad sci-fi, it is impossible to travel to a dimension. We can only travel in a dimension. In three-dimensional space, we can move along an x, y or z axis or some combination of those, but not to x, y or z.
So you don't necessarily have to look up but you can look out and see heaven. Heaven is a fourth dimension if you will," he tells Walters.
The ultimate fate of an open universe is either universal heat death, a "Big Freeze" (not to be confused with heat death, despite seemingly similar name interpretation ; see §Theories about the end of the universe below), or a "Big Rip" – in particular dark energy, quintessence, and the Big Rip scenario – where the ...
Eventually, the entire contents of the universe will be crushed together into an impossibly tiny space – a singularity, like a reverse Big Bang. Different scientists give different estimates of when this contraction phase might begin. It could be billions of years away yet.
According to NASA, time travel is possible, just not in the way you might expect. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity says time and motion are relative to each other, and nothing can go faster than the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second. Time travel happens through what's called “time dilation.”