Quote:
Originally posted by UnseenWorld
"Seeing past the edge of the universe" is kind of an absurd idea in several ways.
First, space is what we call what's between things, so there is no space beyond the universe.
Secondly, "the Universe" in its usual meaning is an all-encompassing concept, such that if we looked beyond what we thought was our universe and saw something else, by the meaning of the term, THAT would also be part of our universe.
Also, I'm not following your logic in terms of the sphericity of the universe. Imagine we are inside a glass ball. Our biggest problem will be that there won't be anything to see beyond the ball. This looking back at ourselves thing is something you'll need to explain a bit more.
|
By the word "space" I mean all the area outside of Earth's atmosphere and yet inside our universe.
I'm not sure where you get that definition of a universe. Our unviverse is (probably) a finite space with a certain set of rules that apply everywhere. The known universe exists in three dimensions (perhaps four, depending on what time really is). Beyond that, there could be more "space" that belongs to a different set of dimensions, runs on a different set of rules, maybe does or maybe does not interact with our "space". The idea of "universe" meaning everything that exists anywhere in any time, space or dimension is the broadest possible definition of a universe. Pick up any scientific journal or publication. The idea of multiple universes is no longer scoffed at and as scienctists explore quantum and string theories, they look more and more likely.
My statement about seeing the back of your own head was followed by a smiley face for a reason. However, it isn't that absurd an idea. As we are dealing with curved space, here, there is no reason not to think that at the edge of our universe things like light might not follw the curve back to where it started. Imagine a hollow sphere of some sort. If you put, say, a marble inside the sphere and set it in motion, it doesn't stop when it rolls to one of the walls of the sphere. Instead, it continues to travel, following the curve of the sphere as long as it has enough energy to do so.
I cannot quote much evidence for that last paragraph, I am just putting forth that the idea is by no means ridiculous.
Seeing past the edge of our universe is only absurd if you go on the assumption that everything that exists exists in our universe. That is not a statement or assumption I have ever heard in any publication or discussion on the matter (see above). For immediate discussion on the matter, just hit the search engines. There are several very good physics and astronomy message boards hosted by universities and technology companies. Very interesting reading in addition to things like the American Journal of Physics.
S[aceAce