What is beyond our univers? It is expanding into nothing? ...It must be something there? Dark force or matter?
145870
This is a common source of confusion. There is a lot about this on the internet and I would direct you to those resources. However it is like we are ants on the surface of an expanding balloon. To ants, living in a 2 dimensional world, they cannot percieve the third dimension that the balloon is expanding into. \n\nThe attached link gives a very detailed, clear and complete discussion about misconceptions about the universe and its expansion. There are many other less difficult explanations available on the internet, however.
909543
If the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years away and it's the only galaxy on Earth to be seen by the naked eye, it leaves us to wonder how far it really is.\n\nPersonally, I googled it. I couldn't find a thing relating to the blank nothingness further than the universe.\nI only looked a little bit, but there are very few educational guesses on the Internet.\n\nMaybe you should try. Googling that is. Maybe it's you who'll find the right words to search it in.  \nThe words stumped me so the was probably my problem.\n\nGood luck on finding the answer!\n-Marissa
1090798
Actually astronomers and physicists are really quite puzzled by the whole universe.  They have absolutely no idea what the dark matter is.  Some postulate that it is neutrinos, even though they have not be able to show that neutrinos have mass. And they do not know if the expansion will stop or not.  At the moment it appears that it will not but they are not certain. They do not know even why the matter of the universe has congealed into galaxies instead of a uniform soup. They have concocted elaborate hypotheses as to why, but they are still puzzled.\n\nAnd best of all is why is there no anti-matter except in labratories?\nWhy did it not cancel out all the matter to begin with?
574337
There are various conflicting theories about this.Some say universe will keep on expanding.Some say it will be a see saw .Some say it will all end in a big contraction.It's still a open question.
627181
Why propose a question you do not believe in?  Secondly, scientist have proven that the univers is expanding from a central point?  Why do you think this is...Do you think God push things outward to make more room?\n\nBesides if god created us, then who created god?
943536
Currently, dark energy seems to be a "fifth" force that seems to conteract gravity at large distances.\n\nHowever, there could be many more forces that we don't know about. For example, what if every dominant force we know is result of a strong force overpowering a weaker force?\n\nIn the case of "dark energy" and gravity, gravity is just a small fraction stronger than dark energy. So it takes a lot of mass to have a reasonable gravitational field. But like the strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity is only stronger than "dark energy" at relatively short distances. As the distances increase, dark energy overpowers gravity and pushes objects away from each other.\n\nIt's something to think about. Counteracting forces, especially if one of them is dominanting, would be difficult to discern.\n\nBut that's just one example. There could be many others that we just haven't experienced yet. These may be all there are. Scientists are making new discoveries everyday so only time will tell.\n\n~X~
514889
Outer space extends to the end of the universe. Further, the universe is constantly expanding. No-one knows if anything is beyond the end of the universe.
246692
It's hard to speculate about that...But from all the books I've read on that subject none of them mention that. They do mention that dark matter exists, but that's about it.
476348
Ask your friend if he knows about "dark matter". \n\nAlmost all the astronomers and most of the physiscists believe nowadays that only 4% of the Universe is made of "normal matter", that is made of neutrons, protons, electrons, photosn, etc (all the aprticles contained in the standard model of Particle Physics). The rest of the Universe is believed to be made of something whose nature is still not known, 26% of this "something" is called dark matter, the name is because it doesn't interact via electromagnetism, therefore, it can not produce, or be affected by light of any frecuency, it is then dark in the sense that no instrument based on light can detect it. The presence of dark matter however affects massive bodies by its gravitational influence, in the last decades its existence has been inferred in objects of very large size, like galaxies and cluster of galaxies, there are many indirect observations that sustain the existence of dark matter, the most stronger is probably the observed rotation curves fo galaxies, which doesn't match the expectations if we account only the visible ("normal") matter.\n\nCandidates for being the components of dark matter are beyond the Standard Model of Particles, going for supersymmetry to more exotic stuff like branes and extra dimmensions. It is a very interesting fields and many projects are currently being carried pout to discover it directly or know more about its nature indirectly.\n\nThe remaininf 70% of the Universe is even a bigger mistery, it is called "dark energy". It differs of dark amtter because contrary to it, it doesn't produce an atraction like the gravitational force, but a repulsion in the large scale Universe, so it is not the same as dark matter, and of course, not the same as normal matter, it is something else, there are theories that try to describe it, but we are still in the beggining of discovering what it is.
533024
Is our universe in another universe?\n  \nBefore we can address that question, we must first define universe.  \n\nThe word universe denotes all space and everything (matter, energy) contained within it.  The prefix uni means one.  The root verse means word, carnate message, meaningful substance, matter.  Questions regarding our universe persist today.  Does it have a beginning and end, or does it go on forever and ever?  Is it linear or curved?  If it has limits of length or curvature, then what lies beyond the Universe?  If something lies beyond the Universe, then can’t we accurately call that the Universe?\n\nSome lay people and some scientists conceive of the universe as infinite space.  Others define the universe as finite, or limited (perhaps curved), space.  Still others incorporate the elements of matter and/or energy into their definition of the universe, as opposed to the space beyond matter and energy.\n\nGiven these concepts of our universe, some scientists conclude that the “totality of space could be infinite. Shrink an infinite space by an arbitrary amount, and it is still infinite. (Scientific American March 2005).”  \n\nAs to the notion that we live in an ever expanding universe, moving away from every other universe on the fabric of space-time, some scientists are careful to point out that “\nAndromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor, is actually moving toward us, not away. Such exceptions arise because Hubble's law describes only the average behavior of galaxies (Scientific American March 2005).”\n\nIn accordance with your supposition that our universe is in another universe, “it has been hypothesized by some scientists that the universe may be part of a system of many other universes, known as the multiverse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe).” Modern astrophysicists talk about multiple "pocket" universes that branch off from one another.  Stephen Hawking points out that parallel pocket universes can have no effect on a real observer inside a single pocket, so, according to Hawking, they are theoretical baggage that should be eliminated from cosmology, the study of the origins of the universe.\n\nSome string theories define the universe as a three-dimensional space in an invisible space having more dimensions. This is, in essence, a universe within a universe.  Our zone, a “braneworld” could periodically bounce into another parallel braneworld.  This may create what would appear as a Big Bang from one perspective or a Big Bounce of alternating expanding and contracting universe from another perspective.  Such a cataclysmic event is thought to occur 300 billion years from now, resulting in the rearranging and creation of a new universe.\n\nIs our universe inside another universe?  Well, apparently the Men in Black had it right.  Our universe seems to be inside of something else, another universe, called the multiverse.\n\nSteve\n:-D
1078040
IANA Physicist, but....\n\nWe're not really sure.  The assumption that they exist is based on the fact that there isn't enough visible matter to keep the universe in the state that it's in.  That is, in order for the universe to behave in the manner that it is, there should be enough matter to generate the proper amount of gravity, but we can only see about a third(?) of the amount of matter required.  Therefore, the rest of the required gravity must be coming from matter that we can't see, hence - Dark Matter.
558467
Is our universe in another universe?  \n\nBefore we can address that question, we must first define universe.  \n\nThe word universe denotes all space and everything (matter, energy) contained within it.  The prefix uni means one.  The root verse means word, carnate message, meaningful substance, matter.  Questions regarding our universe persist today.  Does it have a beginning and end, or does it go on forever and ever?  Is it linear or curved?  If it has limits of length or curvature, then what lies beyond the Universe?  If something lies beyond the Universe, then can’t we accurately call that the Universe?\n\nSome lay people and some scientists conceive of the universe as infinite space.  Others define the universe as finite, or limited (perhaps curved), space.  Still others incorporate the elements of matter and/or energy into their definition of the universe, as opposed to the space beyond matter and energy.\n\nGiven these concepts of our universe, some scientists conclude that the “totality of space could be infinite. Shrink an infinite space by an arbitrary amount, and it is still infinite. (Scientific American March 2005).”  \n\nAs to the notion that we live in an ever expanding universe, moving away from every other universe on the fabric of space-time, some scientists are careful to point out that “\nAndromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbor, is actually moving toward us, not away. Such exceptions arise because Hubble's law describes only the average behavior of galaxies (Scientific American March 2005).”\n\nIn accordance with your supposition that our universe is in another universe, “it has been hypothesized by some scientists that the universe may be part of a system of many other universes, known as the multiverse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe).” Modern astrophysicists talk about multiple "pocket" universes that branch off from one another.  Stephen Hawking points out that parallel pocket universes can have no effect on a real observer inside a single pocket, so, according to Hawking, they are theoretical baggage that should be eliminated from cosmology, the study of the origins of the universe.\n\nSome string theories define the universe as a three-dimensional space in an invisible space having more dimensions. This is, in essence, a universe within a universe.  Our zone, a “braneworld” could periodically bounce into another parallel braneworld.  This may create what would appear as a Big Bang from one perspective or a Big Bounce of alternating expanding and contracting universe from another perspective.  Such a cataclysmic event is thought to occur 300 billion years from now, resulting in the rearranging and creation of a new universe.\n\nIs our universe inside another universe?  Well, apparently the Men in Black had it right.  Our universe seems to be inside of something else, another universe, called the multiverse.\n\nSteve\n:-D
155835
The problem is to tabulate the total mass of the Universe, a realy BIG problem.  There may be a lot of undetected dark matter in the universe that would shift calculations of the Gravitational Constant that will determine the fate of the Universe.  It is like trying to count the mushrooms in a totally blacked out cellar while blindfolded, or even much harder.  Progress is being made as the limits of the Universe are being explored by every means possible, especially by use of the human brain.
942007
The jury is still out on this one. In until recently (the past few years) most scientists agreed with the Big Crunch theory, that the inertia of the expansion would eventually yeid to gravity, and the universe would collpase in on itself. Even Stephen Hawking believed this theory. But a few years ago. "Dark Energy" was discovered. It occupies the vast spaces between the stars and galaxies, that was originally thought to be only a vacuum. That darkmatter  is providing a "pushing out" affect. So now I would say that the majority of cosmologists believe it will expand forever.
51809
The correct answer is that no one knows.  We don't even know what most of the universe is made of (right now it's being called dark matter, because all we know about it is that we can't see it).\n\nIf I had to make a bet, I would go with total energy equals zero.  \n\nThere is a lot of matter in the universe, as everyone is saying, and that makes for a lot of mass energy.  But, the flip side is that there is a lot of mass in the universe, and that makes for a lot of negative gravitational potential energy.  It is possible they cancel.
525769
the universe is expanding into "nothing", is that so hard to understand? yes it is. according to the latest version of string theory, our universee is just one little speck in a whole giant "Landscape of probabilities", with as many probabilities as 10 to the power of 500, and more then 500 dimensions, so can you imagine living in a world with 500 dimensions? no! its impossible to imagine. \ntry to imagine our univers being a giant balloon constantly expanding, outside of this balloon there is nothing, void, by expanding, our universe is creating Space-time as it expands. i know some of those concepts are simply impossible to visualize, but mathematically it make perfect sense.
664661
Quite an interesting question.  Well, it's true that the Universe is expanding, has been expanding since the Big Bang, and always will expand.  Plus, it's been doing so at the speed of light, so unless there's some way for us to travel faster than that, we're already too late to actually go (or send something) and find out what it's expanding into.  Point B can never reach the end.  Having said that, we're fairly sure that 'nothing' is beyond space.  Space is expanding into nothingness.  Of course, this is a hard concept since most of space has nothing in it anyway.  Yet even  when space is empty, it's still considered 'something.'  This empty 'something' expands into the nothingness.  Confusing, I know, but I can't think of a better way to explain.  Anyway, I don't believe there's a container that would stop the Universe from expanding.  I suppose it could be theoretically possible, but I'm not sure how.  I believe it will keep on expanding forever.