does the universe end?
347537
I have given an answer to this elsewhere, but I will repeat it here.\n\nAssuming that by the question you ask, you are essentially asking what is beyond the edge of our Universe, the answer to which will change depending on whether we live in a flat, open or closed Universe.\n\nOne way to try to understand it is to throw away a dimension, and imagine being a 2 dimensional being living on a sheet of paper. Sort of like a cartoon that you drew. To them, the Universe they occupy consists of only the paper itself. There is only up/down, left/right, there is no in and out of the paper for them, it may exist for us observing them, but they can't see us, and they are not aware of this extra dimension. Living on this sheet of paper, whilst flat on the desk there is quite obviously an edge beyond which to them, is nothingness...... hmmmm\n\nOk, so now imagine that they aren't living on a flat piece of paper but on the surface of a sphere (say of a baloon for example). The inside and outside of the sphere is a dimension inaccessible to them. Therefore, there are now NO edges to their universe. If they travelled upwards from their position (NOT leaving the sphere), then they would eventually come back to where they started. If you then started to inflate the baloon, it would expand, but to the "cartoon" people, all they will experience is seeing their surroundings expand. To them, their universe is expanding into another dimension, that they cannot see, and that it inaccessible to them.\n\nThis in a way, but with one dimension less, could be what is happening to our Universe. There may be no physical edge that we can ever come across, but it could be expanding into another dimension. \n\n\nOn the other hand, if you are asking if the Universe will, one day, simply cease to exist .... then that is a completely different answer!!!!\n\nThe Universe is expanding - into what, could be another dimension - and the amount of matter in the Universe will determine whether or not this expansion will stop and reverse, or whether it will carry on for eternity!  As it happens there is evidence to suggest that the expansion of the Universe is actually accelerating, and so the end of the Universe will be a very dismal cold place.  There will be no stars left giving out light, the heat of the Universe will be stretched out over infinity!  It will be the death of the Universe.\n\nIf there was enough matter in the Universe then the gravitational pull of all the matter could force the Universe to start to collapse back in on itself. Eventually it would all come together in one place in what would be called "The Big Crunch" - and this would be the end of the Universe as we know it.
1184658
The universe is incomprehensibly large and, please, don't try to argue it isn't - it is - no person who has ever lived could draw a comparison between the size of the universe and ANYTHING else - there is absolutely NOTHING to measure it against.  I've read articles saying scientists are able to see to the center of the universe now - I'm sorry but that is garbage - the universe is endless.  You can not see the center of something that is endless or, infinite in size.\nI'm not perfect, I admit there may be flaws in my logic so, please, help me learn if you think you have something to add.\nSince the universe is never ending, the odds are minuscule there are no other sentient beings anywhere.  I can't even begin to comprehend how minuscule - in fact, I doubt they can be calculated - if the universe is endless they can not be.\nThis leads me to believe there are aliens in the universe.  It's possible that aliens are here and have been here for a long, long time - but it's also possibly they've never been here.  \nWhat would an alien look like?  There is no way of knowing.
1164204
Everything started off with The Big Bang. As there is the Big Bang Theory, there is also the big crunch theory if im not wrong. During the Big Bang, the universe is formed and it is expanding. But scientific discovery have showed that the Universe is expanding at a decreasing speed. It will come to a point of time where the Universe will stop expanding and due to the internal gravitational force, the Universe will also start contracting but at a slow rate. It will be really contract really slow at first but the rate of contracing will speed up. Think it as a exponential curve. Yup... Then everything will be suck back to the point of sigularity again and when energy in it becomes unstable it will explode again thus forming the new Universe. But anyway we wouldnt be ard to witness this by then. Not even a million lifetime. HAhahah... So dun worry!
897624
The universe is driven by entropy. Its energy on the whole stays the same, but that energy started off in a small number of very hot things and over time is being redistributed to a much larger number of cooler things. \n\nOne possible fate of the universe is that this will continue indefinitely until every particle in the universe has about the same energy. Nothing else would then ever happen in the universe. The temperature of such a universe would be everywhere very, very cold (below 4K).
5808
Nobody really knows for sure.\n\nThere's a theory that the universe is expanding in a spherical shape and will continue to expand until it reaches maximum entropy. At that point all of the energy and matter in the universe will be equally distributed and the universe will no longer be able to support life.\n\nThere's another theory that the universe will expand (again, roughly in the shape of a sphere) until all of the galaxies exhaust their kinetic energy. At that point the universe will begin contracting. When the contracting is complete a singularity containing all of the mass in the universe will form and explode in a big bang.\n\nIf you think about it, if the latter theory is true then it's possible that the universe has expanded and collapsed an infinite number of times in the past!
1113632
What is beyond the borders of the universe?\nIs it truly possible for the universe to go on forever? If there is an end, what’s on the other side?\n \nBefore we can address these questions, we must first define universe.  The word universe denotes all space and everything (matter, energy) contained within it.  The prefix uni means one.  The root verse means word, turn, or whole.  Thus our universe has traditionally been thought to be the one whole of all substance or 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 “Andromeda, 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\nBeyond the borders of the universe, there are other universes moving through a multiverse.  While scientists do not commonly believe that our universe goes on for an unlimited distance, despite its present expansion, they allow for the possibility that the multiverse may go on forever.  If there is an end to our universe, what’s on the other side is called the multiverse.  If there is an end to the multiverse, another term may need to be coined to describe what lay people commonly refer to as infinite space.\n\nSteve\n:-D
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.
231891
I believe the Universe did start with a bang and slowly expands until one day it begans to retract in upon itself until it eventually ends. The beauty is that at that point, it will start all over. It is the ebb and flow of life, the yin and yang or the life and death cycle. Ultimately there is no real end, just life. \nAs far as what lies at the end ... I would say you decide that. It could be reuniting with loved ones, reuniting with God/Universe, or even reincarting again. There are no limits - not time, not physicality, not anything.
65663
No.\nThe Universe is a physical object.  It has a definite size and shape.  The Universe is so big that we do not know its limits.  Our ability to comprehend is not the problem, our technology is.  If we had the right equipment, we could see to the end of the Universe and mesure its size and shape.
334992
There are thoeries but they are just that theories.  Some people believe in the big crunch, in that the universe will eventually stop expanding and then retract to a singularity.\nOr that black holes will carry on being created and absorb one another untill the entire universe is swallowed up.\n\nBut to be honest science does not really have the means to provide a definitive answer at the moment.  We will have to wait and see.
24021
All the techno babble apart - space has no end.\n\nThere is a distinction between space and universe. When talking about space in common man's language we talk about what is outside earth's atmosphere. That space has NO END. It is infinite in all directions and contains the moon, the planets, the sun, the starts, the galaxies, our universe formed after the big bang and beyond (probably several more universes formed of separate big bangs that are dying or forming like stars do).\n\nNow about a sphere's surface having no end but an area, well this has nothing to do with end of either universe or space or a sphere.. when viewed from the center of a sphere, a line drawn in any direction will intersect the surface of the sphere and therefore the entire surface of the sphere is an end. Space on the other hand has no end, it extends out to infinity.\n\nA simple way of understanding this is imagine you are in a room in a building. The room ends with the walls, but beyond the walls there is something - maybe more rooms. The rooms end with he building's walls but even beyond that wall there are more buildings. There is no end, if you imagine an end and if you could stand at the end there would still be something beyond that end more empty space maybe. No matter how large a number you imagine there is always something bigger. Numbers just like space go till infinity.
136202
By "is outer space infinite?" I assume you mean "is the universe infinite?" The answer to this question is NO. The universe and outer space is NOT infinite.\n\nOur current understanding on the origin of the universe tells us that the universe was created in a Big Bang, and that the universe has been expanding ever since (for about 15 billion years). Since light travels 186,000 miles per second, a light-year is about 6 trillion miles or 6 x 10^12.  So 15 billion light years is about 9 x 10^22 miles. This makes the universe very large indeed, but still NOT inifinite.\n\nBTW, this is just the size of our universe. There maybe other universes as other people have indicated, but there is no point talking about them, because we don't know for sure they exist but we are VERY sure that our universe exists.
412853
First off you have a real good question.  As a matter of fact I used to think like this during my high school years.  \n\nInfinity in cosmology\nAn intriguing question is whether actual infinity exists in our physical universe: Are there infinitely many stars? Does the universe have infinite volume? Does space "go on forever"? This is an important open question of cosmology. Note that the question of being infinite is logically separate from the question of having boundaries. The two-dimensional surface of the Earth, for example, is finite, yet has no edge. By walking/sailing/driving straight long enough, you'll return to the exact spot you started from. The universe, at least in principle, might have a similar topology; if you fly your space ship straight ahead long enough, perhaps you would eventually revisit your starting point.\n\nIf the universe is indeed ever expanding as science suggests then you could never get back to your starting point even on an infinite time scale.
446086
the cosmos has an end... every star and galaxy will have an and so the universe will end someday and someday.. look on discovery science for details
1137754
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 :=)))
830256
The universe is still expanding and speeding up, faster and faster.  The outskirts of the universe can boggle the mind.  It has been thought that the mass of the universe would eventually stop the outward push and eventually draw it back to implode in on itself, then repeat.  Like a thirty billion year old flower.  Now it is believed that the universe will die a cold death with the universe continually speeding off in all directions.  Maybe we will run into another universe that is moving towards our own.  And no we will not fall off a cliff, the universe is expanding at a uniform rate in ALL directions.  There will be no drop-offs...
187984
No one knows.  The universe is expanding at such an incredible rate that we'll never reach anywhere near the end of the universe and even if we could travel there at the speed of light we'd die of old age before getting anywhere near the end.