Is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light?... But where to?

[keithbvadu2]

Is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light?

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=universe+expanding+faster+than+light
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https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=universe+definition

u·ni·verse - /ˈyo͞onəˌvərs/

noun: universe; noun: the universe

all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos. The universe is believed to be at least 10 billion light years in diameter and contains a vast number of galaxies; it has been expanding since its creation in the Big Bang about 13 billion years ago.
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OK! The astrophysics math is beyond me even though I can see that there is some disagreement on that speed of light effect.

If the universe is "all existing matter and space considered as a whole", then where is it expanding to?

[pecosbob]

1. Last I heard it now appears different parts are expanding at different speeds

and then there's the whole strings thing...

[Kaleva]

2. The observable universe has a diameter of 93 billion light years

No one knows for sure the size of the entire universe and much of it is beyond what we'll ever be able to see

[WHITT]

4. Maybe

with the Webb telescope? Assuming it works, we don't even know how far back in time we may be able to see.

Can't wait.

[Disaffected]

15. Not with any telescope.

Beyond about 93 billion light-years away, the universe is receding from us faster than the speed of light and it's light will therefore never reach us. It will be inaccessible and unobservable forever.

In fact, some of the most distant galaxies now observable by the Hubble have passed that point and, into the far, far future, only those galaxies within our own local group (Milky Way, Andromeda and a few smaller others) will be visible. Any technological civilizations that happen to develop at that time would have absolutely no way of knowing what lies beyond the local group and would have no inclining at all of the big bang and all that followed - all evidence of creation of the universe would be gone forever.

[Frasier Balzov]

10. If it's observably that big, how much bigger must it actually be at this moment?

Given that it takes so much time for the observable light to reach us.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. It's like a balloon being blown up. So there is not really a "where" that it is expanding to

A where would require an extra dimension, a fifth dimension.

There may be 10 or 11 dimensions according to String theory.

[Iggo]

20. This is the dawning of the...

Oh, never mind.

[Effete Snob]

5. I hope it expands into my basement

The kids left behind a lot of junk.

[Haggard Celine]

6. It seems to me that the only answer to that question is

that the cosmos is infinite, not 10 billion light years across, not any measurable amount. People hate the idea of infinity because it seems like sort of a cop-out non-answer, but we have to realize that humans aren't capable of understanding everything, not by a long shot. If there is a sort of being out there that can comprehend it all, people would probably consider it a god. There could be one of those or many of those or none. But as far as humans are concerned, the cosmos isn't expanding into anything except more infinite cosmos. Maybe you wouldn't even say that it's truly expanding. Maybe it's just moving around. After all, does anything sit still?

[TreasonousBastard]

13. There's always that balloon. The expanding universe is just that...

ballon skin that keeps stretching.

A fake answer if there ever was one, but it keeps theoretical physicists from pissing all over themselves in public.

[Haggard Celine]

14. I can accept the balloon theory. I'll probably never hear a better explanation.

One of these days physicists will look back on our backward times and say, "they had all sorts of wacky ideas about the universe back then, but that balloon theory was almost correct." I really am amazed sometimes by what we do know about the cosmos when I consider how simple we are and how close we are to the other primates. You can't really fault us for not having a detailed knowledge about the universe. Maybe one day our species will evolve far enough to gain a fuller understanding, if we can keep from destroying ourselves first.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. It's not a theory

It's an analogy.

The abstruse math is the theory. The balloon is the Dollar Tree explanation, now $1.25.

[Haggard Celine]

29. Okay, I'll accept the analogy for $1.25.

Feel better?

[TreasonousBastard]

30. Nobody is smart enough to explain it better. While the balloon illustrates how things move apart...

from each other, it has no clue what they are moving into.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. They aren't moving into anything. That's the point. . . . .nt

[TreasonousBastard]

33. I'm not so sure. Motion implies going somewhere-- where is that somewhere?

[ForgedCrank]

36. It's both.

All observations are relative.

[Deuxcents]

7. Infinity

Boundless and beyond our imagination imo. Our minds can’t comprehend it..it’s wondrous

[lapfog_1]

8. to Infinity... and beyond!!!

[Uncle Joe]

9. I believe a giant uterus

and we're basically individual components of one universal body.

Thanks for the thread keithbvadu.

[keithbvadu2]

11. The key SNAFU is that gigantic three letter word 'all'.

The key SNAFU is that gigantic three letter word 'all'.

The loopholes listed so far show that it should be 'all known'.

There is some more 'there' out there.

[Uncle Joe]

25. If the universe were a fetus

it would be all and there would be more out there.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Speed is a function of space and time. As you go "faster"...

space compresses more until it reaches the limit of time. At that point, everything stops and you have reached the speed of light.

That, of course is just in our three dimensions, and we have no clue what goes on in the fifth, and only a hint of the fourth.

Shroedinger's cat posed the question. The Nobel goes to whoever answers it.

[Disaffected]

16. It's expanding into

the dust bunnies under my sofa.

[tinrobot]

17. There is no "where to". The fabric of space itself is expanding.

Kind of hard to comprehend, I know.

When you see them saying a distant galaxy is moving faster than the speed of light, the galaxy itself is not moving that fast in space. The galaxy simply exists in a region of space that is expanding quickly.

As an aside, expansion of space is how Star Trek's warp drives are theoretically supposed to work. They don't move the space ship faster than light, they simply move the fabric of space around the ship faster than light.

[keithbvadu2]

19. Yes. These loopholes still come back to the word 'all'.

[tinrobot]

21. Tough concept. Scientists are still trying to determine the meaning of "all"

We don't really know how big the universe is at the moment. We just know how much of it we can see.

Hopefully the James Webb telescope will give us some more clues.

I find it all quite fascinating.

[triron]

38. Yep. Indeed that is correct (from my understanding). The question of what it's expanding into is

meaningless. There is no 'what' to expand into. The Universe is not only stranger than we imagine
is is stranger than we can imagine. Cosmology is where science meets religion.

[woodsprite]

18. To Hell in a hand basket. nt

[Buckeye_Democrat]

22. The speed of causality (c), or the speed of light...

... doesn't apply to space itself.

It's just that nothing can travel through space faster than c.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. Our universe is but one bubble in a foam....

of limitless bubbles.

I've heard this concept postulated before, and I think Brian Cox has suggested it.

I like that idea. Ours might be 10 billion light years across, but the bubble next to it is also that large, and so is the next and ...well...that one over there is a little bigger and that one is a little smaller.

But it is a foam of limitless bubbles.

[triron]

39. Or the bubbles could be 'evolving' , but toward what?

Maybe only bubbles survive that can support intelligent life?

[A HERETIC I AM]

40. Or maybe they just 'pop' in a random way, just like the foam made by your dish soap.

Either way, it is utterly fascinating.

What's beyond the edge of our universe?

Why another universe, of course!

[Septua]

24. I heard one physicist...

..on How The Universe Works say, "space is this place where stuff is." I assume the 'stuff' being the masses of matter in the universe. So, the universe is expanding farther into space...

Einstein came up with the 'space-time' concept/principle/theory...whatever. The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. His theory of relativity led to light speed limit.

[Kaleva]

26. The greater the speed, the greater the mass and thus more energy is required to move you.

Thus it'd be pretty much impossible for anything with even the slightest amount of mass to be able to travel anywhere near the speed of light because of the energy needed to reach such speeds. Light has no mass and always travels at the speed of light.

[MineralMan]

32. That's a tough one to explain. But, then, much of things about

the universe is hard to explain. The truth is that nobody actually knows all of the answers. Much is known, but there's still much to know. So, for the average person, the only way to even come close to understanding is through analogies, and all of those are faulty and incomplete.

The answer is unknown. There are hypotheses. There are some theories, but every piece of new information adds more questions.

Long ago, I have up hope of ever understanding it all. I have to accept that I will never know the answer. That's OK. It's all still really, really amazing.

[Takket]

34. there are books with some insight into the theories of what the universe is "expanding into"

Michio Kaku has written several good ones. Sorry so say I cannot remember which book I read talked about what the universe is expanding into.

Some theories say we are bubbles along with other three dimensional bubbles, bobbing on the surface of a lake of higher dimensions.

No one really knows because if there are other universes out there they could be simply so far away we could never see them, or separated from us by dimensional barriers we cannot cross.

[keithbvadu2]

35. Theories

[A HERETIC I AM]

41. Another great one from Harris;

[marie999]

37. The universe has been expanding from the beginning of the big bang or whatever.

I guess there is an infinite amount of nothingness to expand into. Trying to get my head around that is like trying not to think about anything. I guess that's only possible when you are dead.