They say that the universe grows.  So... what is it when it's over? What's after that?
457665
Actually, I think the expectation is that it will reach a finite point and start shrinking again.
1059228
If the universe is everything, then what is it expanding into?\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 “\n\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\nIf the universe is everything, then what is it expanding into?  It seems that our universe is all matter, space, and energy that we can perceive in this closed system.  However, that does not mean that there is not additional matter, space, and energy outside our universe.  In other words, there are probably other universes.  Therefore, the zone that we call our universe (or braneworld) may be moving through or expanding into other universes (or braneworlds).  In sum, all universes may be moving through a multiverse.\n \nSteve\n:-D
1186033
There is only one universe, and to say it is expanding actually refers to the fact that the solar systems, galaxies, etc are all spreading apart from one another.  If you believe int he big bang theory, them think of yourself in one VERY slow explosion spreading out from that central core.  \n\nSo I guess to answer your question, it is expanding into itself.
1130955
The universe will end when the sun and all the stars collapse and engulf everything killing everything and sucking it all into a dot. We will all be dead, so it doesn't matter what happens after that. Of course, we still have a few billion years before that happens, so I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, I believe the Lord will return before then, but the universe will not end at that time, only change.
1030178
We could never reach the end of the universe , the farther we look the more stars we will see... And the universe is constantly expanding... so new stars will be forming and others will be dying...
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.
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
800785
Ah yes, people like to give mumbo jumbo bullshiet answers to this question to confuse you further.\n\nThe thing is, we really have no idea. This is half the reason the answer is so confusing.\n\nScientists, like myself, have defined the universe as everything and like to say it isn't expanding into anything because, quite frankly, they don't know what's going on and it's easier to just define the universe as that for the time being. I don't know, neither does anyone else.\n\nFrom recent science, we know that the universe is absolutely finite, therefore it's size is increasing; it is getting larger. This can also be seen by looking at microwave radiation maps of the universe.\n\nSo then, what is it expanding into? Well, if ANYONE could answer this question, they would probably go down in history as greater than even people like Einstein, Newton, Galileo...but the reality is, we don't know. All answers to this question are purely spectical and usually formed to fit a belief system that has been adapted from that person.\n\n\nPersonally, it's probably expanding into more space, which probably contains an indefinite number of universes and extends infinitely.\n\nBut that is only my personal view. Just like all other views.
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
674188
well, spacetime does not seem to end, and nothing is "holding up" spacetime.\n\nthe universe is not infinite. the universe is finite yet has no edge and no center. it may be something like the two dimensional surface of a sphere. nothing inside or outside the sphere exists for the two dimensional surface.\n\nalso, i have something for you to think about. the radius of observable universe is about 46 billion lightyears, yet the universe is 13.7 billion years old.
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!
387616
Originally it was thought that the expansion of the Universe was slowing, and would eventually stop, reverse, and end in a "big crunch".  Now it appears as if the expansion is not only *not* slowing, it's actually accelerating!  As close as we can tell, this expansion will continue until the Universe dies of cold-when the reaction potential reaches zero, and all the energy is lost either to waste heat or inert matter.  However, it is clear we have a very poor understanding of the Universe and what it is composed of, and the forces that drive it (the expansion, for example, seems to require a new force that opposes gravity).  There is also the possibility that humans, or some other intelligent species, will over the next few billion years, achieve enough knowledge and power to change the fate of the Universe.
580755
About the only thing I ever heard that made any sense was that there was another universe. The idea was that you have a big bang, which throws all the matter in the Universe outward from the center. After a while (a LONG while) gravity starts pulling these pieces closer together again and you get what's called the Big Crush, where the whole universe get's squidged up into a tiny, infinitely small point. The theory went on to say, that that spot would explode in a Big Bang and the whole thing would start all over again.
58597
Recently, scientists are creating theories that saying there are more universes beyond our own. Until we learn to harnass the power of warpholes, black holes, etc. or send things traveling at the speed of light without damaging it, we may never know where space ends.
727803
The known universe appears to be expanding. This does not mean it actually is expanding.\n\nIt might be gravity, or distortions in space affecting our perception of the universe.\n\nIt might be our misinterpretatons of the observations.\n\nThe observation is, that as we find galaxies farther away, they all are moving away, and the farther out they are, the faster they are moving away from us.\n\nDoes this mean the universe is expanding? Perhaps it means that the big bang occured at our location, thus everything is moving away from us. Yah, right....\n\nPerhaps galaxies that were moving at high speeds towards us, have already passed us, and are now moving away from us.\n\nPerhaps galaxies that are moving at high speeds towards us, have the electromagnetic energy from them shifted so much, that we cannot detect them by normal means. This might mean that there are the same amount of galaxies moving towards us as away from us.\n\nPerhaps, the universe was expanding, but is now collapsing, but it takes 15-20 billion years for the light to reach us, and we can only see that they were moving away 15-20 billion years ago.\n\nLots of maybes.
683506
Wow, what great questions.  Just so you know, we don't know the answer to what was before the big bang.  One idea is that our universe expands, then contracts on itself, over billions of years, and the whole big bang repeats over.  In other words countless universes preceded our own.
545405
What happens if heaven is here on earth and we are wasting our precious time wondering where we are going to go next.  The universe I think is a God like creation of infinity upon infinity exploding and imploding in a constant merry-go-round of momentous force started by an almighty, power-full, special entity,......God.  So close your eyes and dream your dreams, we are all part of God and the universe, they are both one and the same, immortally eternal....