Could it be that we are actualy in a shrinking universe and it just looks like its expanding because of are perspective.  Just something to think about maybe...
205073
the doppler effect means that if an object is moving away from us the light it is sending out is slightly more red than normal (the wave length is longer)-a red shift, if it is moving towards us the light from it is slightly more blue(wavelength is shorter)- a blue shift. Most of the galaxies we see in space are red shifted so everything is moving away from everything else. This proves that so far the universe is expanding. If gravity gets the better of us and all the galaxies begin to move in on each other then they would be blue shifted. This may well happen in the far off future- we can't tell yet, but Even if this was happening they wouldn't all meet in a 'big crunch' (the opposite of the big bang) for a few billion years so it's not really anything to worry about!
162944
i'm not sure at all(I don't think anybody is), but i think that there might have been other big bangs. Maybe the universes are linked by black holes?
235372
the universe is too big dude. there has to be other life.
609331
Watch NOVA on public television or science channel. There was an episode about string theory.\n\nIt's scientifically possible to explain other dimentions. Therefore, perhaps, we leave this world and go to another when we die! perhaps ghosts are just people trapped between dimensions.
391743
nope....that's the interesting thing...you are doing a "thought experiment" but reality actually looks different. The problem is that our thinking can only think in that time-space concept as we live it. But is a mental construct. \n\nSo - first of all - we are as limited as a being which lives in a paper plane and just can't see or understand or grasp us, 3D beings. \n\nSecond - if you are looking to think about time travel rather try it with ideas like "slider"....which is a TV show dealing with parallel universes. Because that is basically what i is. \n\nEverything exists...the dead grandmother, you, at the same "time" If your grandma dies in one universe it will develop different there. But it has no impact on this universe where you live.  Simply speaking. There is no way "to cross" into another universe because also those are some kind of "construct" and not as real as your brain wants to imagine them. \n\n(It's like the funny thing that people always think they can see and touch atoms if they just go small enough...but all what's left there is energy, no solid matter, really. Physicists describe those "particle waves" as wave functions....)
161283
I've been studying these issues alot more in the past year or two, and I find them incredibly compelling. \n\nWhen you look at the massive size of the universe, to assume that we are alone is, if only mathematically, ignorant to some degree. \n\nThe more I study history and astronomy, the more I think these two topics are combined. \n\nI may sound like some wackjob, but, I think that there is life elsewhere, that they have traveled here, and perhaps have had a hand in certain events in history. \n\nI don't believe in coincidences, and there are entirely too many questions in our past without answers that can be provided which point towards humans. \n\nWho knows - maybe I am a wackjob, but in the big picture, you can never question everything enough. \n\nIts a big, big universe. We all get wrapped up in our tiny lives, in our tiny houses, in our tiny countries, and forget about the stars, the galaxies that are out there. \n\nSome day I believe we'll find the truth, unfortunately I believe that this 'someday' will be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years in the future.
523544
The product of space and time is not so much an abstraction as much as an aberrated perception. ( Why, In GR theory, is everyone always going deductively DOWNWARDS into the collapse rather than inductively tracking the event back to original precipitating events?  The answers are THERE.)
640720
greetings....\n\ni actually believe that we are not alone...i have my own encounters... the universe is big....so big we cannot even start to comprehend how big it is... chances are, life could actually be abundant in the universe, but the degree of intelligence could vary widely, maybe life exist only in microbial form, or with intelligence much superior than ours... but for now only earth is known to harbor life... aren't we lucky we are here?
350661
I hate to be the philosopher but that is why the question still reamins. No one can accuratly tell what lies beyond the boundries of the universe. Is there another? Is it just white noise? I believe that space is infinite and our "universe" could well be a part of a cluster of "multiverses". i was once told that the universe is expanding in the same way that a balloon is blown up. So what lies beyond our universe? I say space, space, and more space! \n\nIf our universe began with the "big bang" then that would mean that at some point the universe had collapsed upon itself, leaving empty space.
647015
I believe it. I also believe in the theory, in which, as you may also know, whole cosmos is going to turn back into that extra atom. What I wonder alot, when the expansion of the universe will stop and start to shrink back :=)))
96166
In a word, yes. When the universe was created, all matter was condensed. What we perceive as 'expansion' which is all bodies moving away from each other is just illusion based on the fact that it's the space between them that's expanding. Imagine a balloon that's flat, and you draw 2 marks on it, right beside each other. Once the balloon is inflated, the rubber stretches, causing the space between the marks to widen, but it appears that it's the marks themselves that's moving.\nAs a side note, it's my personal belief that the universe, and everything in it (including you and me) are just figments of our extremely warped and deluded imagination. We are in a dream.
110662
The universe is expanding more quickly the farther one gets toward the edge. \n\nWe know this because objects seen moving away from us through radio telescopes exibit a red shift, depending upon how fast they are moving away. The light from stars that are farther away from earth show more red shift than those close to earth, indicating that they are moving faster from us then their closer neighboors.\n\nThis implies that the forces of expansion are greater than those of contraction (gravity), and that the fate of the universe is not cyclical (no more big bangs), and that black holes, while locally dense, will never exert enough influence to contribute to large scale contraction of the universe.
19276
the same thing thats on this side. new matter is not being formed it is just expanding from the force of the big bang all those millions of years ago. Some scientists say the expansion will eventually stop and the universe will collapse onto itself, and then maybe explode again. All theories so in effect we dont know.
512671
Actually, I have a similar theory - I reckon that when you see 'ghosts' they could either be images from alternate universes like you said, or I prefer to say other dimensions, as I believe there may be countless numbers of other dimensions which must over lap with ours. Since everything, by which I actually mean absolutely EVERYTHING, is made of vibrating energies, some very strong, some weaker, 'ghosts' could be images formed by very weak energy/veryslow vibrations, while you and I are made up of strong, fast vibration which give us density and substance. These weaker energies/slower vibrations are probably less tied to a particular dimension and therefore slip more easily between them.
302814
I ponder that a lot sometimes, when I get completely overwhelmed by the pace of my life and the obsessive narcissism of people.\nI have this little 'shoe-box' theory: We are really at a loss to begin explaining exactly HOW BIG the universe actually is, so we may as well just be this compact galaxy, stuck at the back of somebodys wardrobe in another space and time.\nYes, I'm a weirdo...
647121
If there was just nothing, we would never know what could happen because we wouldnt exist.\nI believe there is more out there in the universe than what we know of.\nWether we discover these things or not is hard to ever say.
555272
Well, its been theorised that what is beyond the universe is a fourth dimensional bowl. Basically our universe is a 3d soup encased in a four dimensional bowl. How was that made? I would think the same way that our universe was created. I mean, we have only just begun to comprehend the world around us, many of the theories that are coming out are exactly that theories because we really dont know. Untill we can explore more of our universe, we arent really going to know, and if its in a 4th dimension, we really wont know. But, what you could do, is look at some of the sources, and hopefully those will help.