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What does everything think about these new articles coming out - new study claiming the Universe is a sphere?
Honestly, I have trouble understanding even the "flat" universe, probably due to the time sense. The Hubble Deep Field image was taken when it was pointed in a particular direction, and the picture shows all sorts of galaxies all over the place. What if you pointed the Hubble telescope "downward" or "upward" and you will find even more galaxies. How is this a flat universe?
What does everything think about these new articles coming out - new study claiming the Universe is a sphere?
Honestly, I have trouble understanding even the "flat" universe, probably due to the time sense. The Hubble Deep Field image was taken when it was pointed in a particular direction, and the picture shows all sorts of galaxies all over the place. What if you pointed the Hubble telescope "downward" or "upward" and you will find even more galaxies. How is this a flat universe?
What does everything think about these new articles coming out - new study claiming the Universe is a sphere?
Honestly, I have trouble understanding even the "flat" universe, probably due to the time sense. The Hubble Deep Field image was taken when it was pointed in a particular direction, and the picture shows all sorts of galaxies all over the place. What if you pointed the Hubble telescope "downward" or "upward" and you will find even more galaxies. How is this a flat universe?
The idea of the universe being flat doesn't mean flat like a piece of paper (basically two dimensional). What it means is that in a flat universe space does not curve back on itself so that if you were to start out in a straight line, that line would never eventually come back on itself as it would in a closed universe. If you walked in a straight line around the earth you would eventually return to your starting point. The same is true if the universe is closed or curved. In a closed universe if you traveled in a straight line you would eventually return to your starting point. Or to put it another way, in a closed universe, if you could see far enough you would see the back of your own head.
In an open or flat universe a straight line would just keep going forever and never curve back on itself.
Last edited by Michael Way; 11-10-2019 at 10:13 AM..
Seems like the more we learn about the vastness of space...the smaller and more insignificant we get!
We live on one planet orbiting one star out of hundreds of billions in the Milky Way. Does it really matter if there are millions or billions or trillions of other galaxies? Regardless, our corner of the universe is an extraordinarily tiny one compared to all that's out there.
And what's with this need for humanity to be significant on a cosmic scale? You're alive. You have your life. Is that somehow diminished for you if there are more supergiants and more black holes and more galactic clusters than you thought there were ten years ago?
It's incredible to think about the size of the Universe. At least as human beings, we can understand the size (somewhat anyway).
Makes you think what is the point of all this size?
The point of all this size of the Universe is explained as a rapid FTL period of the emergence and sudden Inflation of space and time after the instant moment of the Big Bang, followed by 13.8 billion years of continued expansion, as well as the accelerated expansion of space. We can sort of understand some of it in terms of numbers, but it's really difficult to wrap our brains around it in a way that makes sense to comprehend just how large the Universe really is. We have images of galaxies that are far distant in space, but they're also far distant in the past of time. We don't see things as they are right now. We see things as they were. The Universe is a weird place.
I’ve read a number of articles about this. Either ways, the curvature is likely to take place outside of the boundaries of the observable universe.
On another note, I have to say that I agree with what another user said. The scale is meaningless on a human level, since we have yet to establish a permanent presence on our nearest neighbour the Moon. To that extent, the Milky Way, might as well be the whole universe.
To me a closed Universe is a little easier to comprehend than an open, infinite Universe.
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