A question about space???
436621
yeah, i guess it could wrack almost anyone's brain.  spacetime is not infinite.  it is finite yet has no edge.  it may be something like the two dimensional surface of a sphere.  nothing inside or outside the sphere exists for the surface.  nothing exists outside the universe or before the universe.  i have something else for you to think about.  the universe is 13.7 billion years old, yet we can observe parts of the universe that are about 46 billion lightyears away.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang\nhttp://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html\nhttp://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147
557289
I read about an experiment where they actually made light travel backwards faster than the proposed limit for the speed of light.\n\nhttp://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2544\n\nAlso, there is some proposals that what we call "the void" we call space isn't as much a void as it is micro-matter continuously coming together and annihilating each other and repeating this process continuously.\n\nSome other information on space:\n\nhttp://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2544
561415
physically the universe has no limits . but still it is expanding with enormous speed . you can go to this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space and find out whatever you need about space . good luck
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
818302
Firstly- 'miles' aren't the useful unit of measure here- they're far too small.\n\nWhile the galaxy is 100,000 light years in diameter- you don't need to travel 100,000 light years in order to leave it.  It's fairly flat- like a record er... uh.. .I mean CD.  Plus- we're about 2/3'rds of the way out on an arm.  So- you can leave in the plane of the galaxy and be pretty much outside of it in 20,000 light years.  Or- go out normal to (perpendicular to) the plane, and be out in about 5,000 light years.
23168
In an extention of the big bang theory, the size of the spots in the microwave background radiation can indicate the geometry of the universe. Recent (2001) measurements confirm that the universe is "flat" (for an explanation of shapes, see source link). There is a 2% margin of error in this measurement.\n\nAs for what is beyond space, I would say the question isn't possible to answer, as most people define "space" to mean "Everything there is". What is outside of "everything"? Nothing, it would seem.
603134
In all actuality, your question makes no sense.  If you were to take out all the "space" in matter, there would be no matter.  Matter is basically made out of energy and forces interacting with each other.  If you compressed the universe into the size of a refrigerator, you wouldn't have matter anymore.
357562
What is this gravity that you mention?  :P\n\nGood point tho, funny how it didn't exist until very recently in our history.  *hugs*
299945
Space is infintie.  The universe,however, is not.
787586
Even the difference between space where the space station is thicker than space between the Moon and Earth which is thicker than the space between Earth and Mars which is thicker than the space between stars in the milky way which is thicker than the space between Galaxies!!!!\n\nMostly the (very small amount ~10^(-18) ATM) gas is hydrogen
667215
An interesting theory!  What do you think it will start coliding with?  Actually as space expands, the matter within it becomes farther and farther apart, so there is less and less chance of colisions.  \n\nThere are two aspects of the curvature of space.  Local curvature is caused by (or causes) gravity - masses curve the space around them.  But the entire universe may be curved on a great 4-D sphere.  \n\nThe third link below gives an excellent discussion on curvature and the expansion, including an explanation of the density parameter.  If the density parameter is less than 1, then the universe will expand forever.  \n\nAstrophysics and cosmology are pretty fascinating topics.  Keep asking questions and, when the time is right, take some classes in these subjects (take lots of math first!).  The scientific world needs folks who can think outside the box!
270562
This has been asked maybe 137 times but instead of researching, please, keep asking.  The latest research shows that it is expanding faster than ever.  So it will probably keep going.  There is no 'edge' to the galaxy and nobody understands why.  I personally think it has a finite size but it is expanding at the speed of light.
741018
Hi there,\n\nTry looking for "Klein space" (without the 's). You get for instance this page : http://www.mccallie.org/myates/The%20Shape%20of%20Space/Student%20Projects/group10.htm
659476
"...What are the dimensions (length, width, and height or thickness) of the physical universe (in light years)?..."\nThe universe can't be measured in terms of length, width, and height. Such parameters require some reference point from which measurements can be made, along with some distant boundary where the measurement would end. You simply can't do that with the universe because the universe is isotropic, meaning it's the same in all directions from any observing point. From Earth we can look outward in any direction and 'see' about 13.7-billion light years. From Earth that represents a boundary. Here comes the tricky part: if some alien in a galaxy 13.7-billion light years away from Earth looked outward in all directions (including back towards Earth) they'd 'see' a universe that appeared to be 13.7-billion light years in scope. In other words, the universe has no boundary. To have one it would have to be inside some "thing" else, and there's absolutely no evidence that such is the case.\n\nTo confuse the issue even more, if we had the ultimate telescope with limitless viewing power we still will never be able to see into the universe beyond a certain range. That's because at almost the same instant of the Big Bang the universe briefly expanded faster than light (this doesn't violate relativity because it was the space of the universe that did the expanding). In our 'normal' universe the speed of light is the speed limit which prevents us from ever seeing any of that inflation because it's moving away faster than the speed of light.\n-----------------------------------------------------------\n"...I've read that the universe is thought to be "saddle shaped..."\nMore recent observations point more towards the universe being geometrically "flat." This simply means that the universe appears to be infinite, that its space will expand forever while cooling more and more over the eons.\n------------------------------------------------------------\n"...What does it mean for example, to say that the universe is expanding at a rate of 70 kilometers per second per (x number of light years)?..."\nYou've described the so-called Hubble Constant. (70 km/sec/Mpc) It means if galaxy 'A' is 1 Mpc (1-million ly) away from us it's recessional velocity will be 70 km/sec. If galaxy 'B' is 2 Mpc away then it's velocity will be 140 km/sec It's important to keep in mind though that it's space that's expanding like that, not the galaxies moving THROUGH space; they just get carried along.\n------------------------------------------------------------\n"...I was not able to find a rate of acceleration of expansion..."\nI've been looking for a figure too. So far the only thing I've come up with is -3.15^36 /sec/sec  Darned if I know what the units of measurement are though. Maybe someone else on Yahoo can help us out with that.
1097658
"Space air"?\nIt is really hard to decipher what you are trying to ask.\n\n"Space" is pretty close to being a vacuum (for all intensive purposes for us here on Earth), thus there is no "air" in space.\n\nThe concept of there being some type of medium in space which everything travels through (the idea of an "aether", the material which allowed light to propigate through empty space) has since been disproven over well 100 years ago by the Michelson-Morley experiment.
820808
The concept of "beyond space" is flawed; space-time has no beyond for there to be anything in at all. Our limited perception of the stuff around us in three dimensions leads us to imagine the universe or even all of space as some giant sphere or disc of matter floating in space, but really, space and time being the same thing mean that our universe and all within it is everything we can perceive, full stop. Ergo, there is no inside to be outside of. \n\neither that or its turtles all the way down :-)
251659
Space is a 'fundamental' property of nature, which is a fancy way of saying that there is nothing more basic than Space as a medium of measurement.  Space is defined only as a relative porportion of distance when you compare at least two, very real, objects.  In this sense, space is not exactly nothing.\n\nAs a matter of fact, space as we now understand it, is filled completely with a very low level of energy called 'background radiation' which is most definitely something, even if it is very, very spread out.\n\nOne seemingly very odd property of Space is that it apparently is growing very fast, faster than the speed of light even, especially where it is the least 'filled up' with stuff.