The edge of the universe? expansion and the other ramblings of a madman
We know the universe is constantly expanding, but... what's beyond the universe?
This is another response to my original post HERE
I love this question, mainly because there are so many different possibilities for the answer. Firstly I am a believer that almost ALL modern physics is wrong. A pretty big claim from some unknown nerd on the internet, but I do truly believe that modern physicists are trying to make their theoretical universe fit their math( math that I believe is fundamentally wrong due to errors in calculating zero) rather than changing their math to fit the universe. My fundamental scientific(method) background also gives me the one rule to live by, that I at any point in my existence could be 100% wrong and I am willing to accept that. Ego has no place in science, but unfortunately most humans suffer from one.
The following is a quote copied directly from a NASA website, I would just like to point out, that in the quest for knowledge nothing should ever be 'ignored'
Gravity in Space
Is there gravity in space?
There is gravity in space... only it's very, very small. It's called "microgravity" because it is so small. Gravity affects everything, everywhere, although in space it is usually such a small effect that it can be ignored.
Dr. Louis Barbier
(November 2002)
So enough rambling, back to the question at hand. Is the universe actually expanding? From the viewpoint of earth, it does appear so, but there is a limit to what we can actually see. Analogy time ( I love a good (bad) analogy) Say your sitting in a boat, surrounded by other boats, out in the calm ocean, and you observe the other boats slowly moving away from you. Does this mean the ocean is getting bigger, the boats are changing in size, or your just observing motion from a peculiar vantage point. Expansion is sometimes explained with the inflating balloon analogy. However if the two dimensional surface of the balloon represents the universe, this still doesnt' explain what the universe is expanding into.
Enter the HYPERBALOON!!
If we expand(puns!!) our regular 3D baloon with its 2D surface into a 5D baloon with a 4D surface we can infalte it into itself all we want without it taking up any more space. A very neat soloution if you believe in 5 dimensional baloons.
My personal theory however is both simpler and yet much more complicated. While I feel I have a complete understanding of the universe, in my own head, putting it into words that make sense to other people has proven challenging.
The core idea is quite simple The universe is INFINTE, there is no edge. So what about all this expansion we are observing then?
Lets try and agree for a moment that all possibilities of existence do in fact exist. We could even label different parts. Uniquely things that do exist are subject to motion, if a wave be it electromagnetic, gravitational or something made up ceases to move, it will have a habit of ceasing to exist. A bunch of scientists have gotten their panties in a knot arguing over the origins of the universe. For humans are obsessed with things like edges, starting points, end points and so forth. Being that everything moves, its not that big of a task to trace the motion of things backwards to find out where they come from. All sounds pretty plausible so far. The problem is that in a truly infinite universe there are potentially an infinite number of starting points to trace back to. The real problem is most people find the concept of 'infinite' very hard to actually grasp.
Just like the question what came before the big bang (hint the answer is the same as what came after it EVERYTHING) its just an arbitrary point we keep obsessing over. In a complete universe, there is no edge, no outside, there is just more. Curiously every galaxy we have ever observed has a super massive black hole at the center, and we are looking for a mystical 'big bang' to work out where things came from. Until gravity is reconciled with out other 'laws' of physics we will as a species keep looking in the wrong places for answers.
Did that actually answer anything?
Anyway I shall try and answer this question again in the future as i have multiple different answers for the question, each with their own unique quirks. Its hard getting it all out of my brain at once so that's enough on the topic for the moment.
On a completely unrelated side note I have been watching an anime lately called "a place further than the universe" Its actually a heartwarming story about a journey to Antarctica, highly recommended if your into that sort of thing.
Title image : playing with the double exposure feature of my Smartphone, it seemed relevant.
I am also becoming a bit skeptical about the current model of the universe. Have you looked into the Electric Universe Theory (https://www.electricuniverse.info/Introduction) and the Thunderbolts Project (https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/)? The latter can also be found on YouTube and proposes some alternative explanations for many space phenomena.
I Followed your links for some very interesting reading. I have never been a fan of 'dark matter' theories, so of course "C. J. Ransom, M. Acheson, "The Plasma plus Gravity Universe May Not Need Dark Matter" particularly caught my eye. Also, while not scientific at all, I think 'space plasma' has a much nicer ring to it than 'dark matter' . I am a big(like omg huge!!) Tesla fan and his famous quote
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” really does resonate(pun) with me. Thanks for the links it has helped both confirm some of what I already believed and given me some new things to contemplate.
I guess we can't be sure wheter there's an edge or not, if the universe it's expanding or it's just infinite.
I always wonder many things, like, according to the law of conservation of mass, it can't be neither created or destroyed, so, what if the big bang was the end of a universe and the start of this one?
The awesome thing about a truly 'infinite universe' is that within it, a big bang/ death rebirth scenario would exist, its just a matter of time. (It took about half an hour to finish writing this sentence because I got lost in a journey of contemplation) :)
GREAT! I made you wonder too! The universe is such a wonderful thing, full of new discoveries every day.