what exactly is the universe

[fiddyonefiddy]

i have always wondered where it came from
they say there was nothing then all of the sudden the big bang. from nothing? this always scares me because to this day no one can explain this. we know it is expanding but expanding to where?
is there an end to the expansion is it gonna hit the edge and bounce back.

[jessem98]

i just had a convo about this with my buddy after a nice blunt (we were high as FUCK).

What i wonder is this: if a galaxy is a subdivision of the universe, the planets are a subdivision of the galaxy - whats the universe a subdivision of? and is that part of some other bigger thing? does it end? if so, how, why, what is at this ending. Also if sound is how humans communicate [standard to us] - what is the standard form of communication for ALL of this? I could go on, but i feel the more i go on, the more i start to sound retarded, haha.

[Mr. Clandestine]

they say there was nothing then all of the sudden the big bang. from nothing?

Actually, I think the theory implies that in the center of the nothingness sat an infinitely dense blob of matter, which expanded and contracted violently and with endless amounts of energy until one day it finally exploded and created the universe. The space that it once occupied isn't given much thought, though. A vast non-universe, perhaps? However much sense that makes...

It's all theory, and nothing conclusive has ever been presented that authenticated the ideas. There's speculation out the wazoo regarding string theories, expansion, dark matter, and the like. But it's far from infallible. There are simply some things that our primitive minds can't explain properly, and probably never will. In order to grasp what happened in the beginning of time itself, you'd first need to understand what happened before time existed. It's an informal fallacy, though many so-called "scientists" will never admit to the inconclusiveness of the argument.

[Readytoride08]

I like to smoke then wacth videos like Enigma "Morphing Tru Time"on youtube.It shows alot of cool stars,space exploration,and a big twinkling star traveling around,that would most likley be God I would think :D.There is a part of space that there is NOTHING.No stars,no planets,no gases,just a black spot.I wonder why it is incoplete there?:(

[fiddyonefiddy]

mr clandestine
ive been watching "the universe" on the discovery channel
and what they are saying is the "blob" as you call it was the size of an atom when it exploded then expedentialy it grew into what we know today.
my main question is where did the blob come from and where did the "universe" come from.we know it was'nt "gods creation" cause god has only been around for 6 k years,a relative new comer in the span of time of the cosmos, that we now know is billions of years old.
to be honest i dont think we will ever know this.

[Mr. Clandestine]

to be honest i dont think we will ever know this.

That's where I'd put my money. As I mentioned earlier, in order for us to know exactly what happened at the time of the expansion, we'd need to have our facts straight about where this atom-sized blob originated, what started it spinning, what was present before our concept of "time" existed, and the like. We can, in a sense, look into the past by observing our own galaxy, GRBs in ours and other galaxies, and other cosmic phenomena that's visible to our eyes and telescopes, but I don't ever see us placing our finger on anything beyond speculation and cosmic theory. We're just not advanced enough to know for sure.

[Esoteric416]

Imagine this for a moment: A black hole is a microscopic mass so dense that everything coming within a certin proximity to it (the event horizon) is sucked in and mashed into that tiny point likely being destroyed, reduced to its most basic elements by the violent and extreme force of the black holes gravity. Imagine that at one point after perhaps billions of years that point reaches some as yet not understood threshold and bursts out in a wild expansion of all that stored up energy, but the expansion is so violent that it somehow crosses a border that we can't yet detect into an alternate dimension of reality. There you have the big bang of an alternate universe.
This is a simplistic (and admittedly uninformed) summary of a theory that some physicists have put foreward. Very theoretical but nonetheless interesting.

[Mr. Clandestine]

Very theoretical but nonetheless interesting.

I find most of the theories very interesting to both learn about and to discuss. I don't, however, lend any credence to the infallibility of the theories merely because a theory is perceived to be logical. Who am I to determine what's logical? I don't have any advanced degrees in astrophysics and stellar phenomena. I just enjoy reading about it and having the opportunity to ponder the possibilities.

[OneIn1]

Also if sound is how humans communicate [standard to us] - what is the standard form of communication for ALL of this? .

Humans communicate mostly with body language, i think about 55%. which isnt hard to conceive if you think about how u cant have a conversation with another species, or humans who dont speak ur language for that matter, so through evoluton we relied on the body for our tool of communication.

There is also no air in outer space so sound cannot travel unlesss.....u assume it is still there but is not receivable or conceivable by our minds and devices.

I think information is the language of the universe.

[colour]

well....holy crap i don't even like think about it. everytime i look up my mind punches the back of my eyes telling me to look at the ground.

[SnSstealth]

Heres how i see it. Its becoming apparent through scientific study that all groups of matter in space go through a long time scale processes or life-cycles if you will. Galaxys have super black holes in them which are pulling all the matter of that galaxy once a black hole (super or not) reaches its threshold it starts to shoot out incredible amounts of matter. The resulting area becomes a breeding ground for star formation and the planets that may surround them, as seen in many of the hubble images. I believe they're called quasars. Then due to the continual gravity of the black hole the galaxy will eventually reform. ALL OF THIS IS IN GENERAL, there are collisions of galaxys (galaxi?..no)and many other occurrences that could change these events. However, its my thought that this is what the big bang theory is, just on a smaller scale. At some point before the big bang an unimaginable force was pulling the whole of the previous universe in upon itself and reached its threshold to explode all the matter back out into space to begin another life cycle. stars do it, galaxys do it, why not the universe?

I know, i know smoke another one...lol

db:smokin:

[vej33]

i read up on a theory where scientists think the universe came from a dimension larger than itself, in which long, cell-like blobs called "Branes" (short for membranes) float in an undetermined space... the Big Bang, they theorize, happened when two of those branes came in contact with eachother, causing a violent reaction, and, in our smaller dimension, throwing vast amounts of energy from seemingly nowhere.

the matter, or at this stage, particles, atoms, and soon, elements, that is seen in this new universe comes from the after-affects of the branes' collision. Scientists say that the branes at this point after they came in contact are now in an almost "rippling" like state, wherein the change in their shape causes more energy to be created and focused, but not enough to make a new Big Bang.

personally, i love the theory because it provides speculation, but honestly i find it hard to believe, only because there just isn't any evidence.

also, i was in Barnes & Noble recently, flipping thru a science magazine (on my way home from my job as a Personal Trainer.. i am a rare breed of Geek lol), and found an ad for a book called "Our Undiscovered Universe". Supposedly it provides an alternative view to the Big Bang. Ironically, I could not find the book in the store, nor was it in there computer database. It simply became "The Undiscovered Textbook", and I haven't looked for it since, but it'd probably be a great read.

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

let's say infinity is the rule of thumb, and that everything is divided into "sections".

Earth is *our* section, outside is the solar system section, followed by the galaxy, then the universe, and so on and so forth.
each section has a broader or denser law of physics, the further out you go, the broader the physics, the further in you go, the denser.

there is a point in all sections where the "smallest/largest possible section" becomes obscured by matter and energy, even though there is smaller/larger, we cannot concieve of it because it is too far removed from our section of infinity to accurately observe.


Hence the unpredictable quantum physics.

if we extend our sights to an equal greatness OUTWARD as the quantum strings are INWARD, i am sure we would encounter something equally unpredictable.



next is the issue that i cannot decide on. does infinity "loop"?

in other words, is the smallest possible size equal to the greatest possible size; are they the same "place"?

In other words, in infinity, is it a line, a circle, a sphere, or something beyond the three demensional shapes and figures?

Personally, i beleive that the infinite contains anything, everything, and nothing at all, and that we are only in one particular section of it, and that infinity is an infinite complexity containing every possibility and impossibility.

infinity, being one demensional, permits infinite demensions.

was our universe created from utter nothingness? no, i do not beleive there was ever utter nothingness without utter everythingness (infinity) accompanying it.

I believe in a sort of taoism that for everything that exists, there exists an equal and opposite representation of essentially the same thing; night to day, left toright, up to down, infinity to nothingness.



OKAY.... so let's see... let's skip a few unknowns, like what is bigger than the universe or smaller than the quantum and go like this:

the universe is a subdivision of the single demension of infinity, the galaxies of the universe are subdivisions of the universe, the solar systems of galaxies are the subdivisions thereof, planets < solar systems, continents < planets, countries < continents, counties/states < countries, cities < states/counties, communities < cities, families < communities, individual people < families, organs < people, cells < organs, molecules < cells (?), Atoms < Molecules, Strings < Atoms, Nothingness < strings, Infinity < Nothingness.



perhaps it goes in a circle like that, perhaps not, most likely is that i am simply omitting hundreds of 'planes' in between nothing and infinity due to the lack of knowing...


since i believe in infinity, i do not believe in the traditional ideas of death, reincarnation, or holy figures/religion. i believe that reality is more than what we make of it, and yet nothing but what we make of it, that the mind itself is the center point of a single dimension I like to call infinity, and that all else spawns from the mind first.


Science cannot disprove anything, therefore i believe everything is true unless the circumstnaces prevent it from being so.

Science can only prove what circumstnaces are required for certain reactions and interactions, but it cannot ultimately disprove anything all together, only prove that things cannot exist in certain situations.

Which means, to me, that everything MUST exist, else nothing COULD exist.


it is integral.

[Blazed Deafy]

i dont know to say all of this...how do we know the earth was formed in 6000 years ago or 6 billion years ago? how did the humans know the time is correct? what if the universe in fact young or the universe doesn't have a time at all. Time is just tangible measurement that satisfies our knowledge to find the absolute truth. Infinity does have loops and infinity exists everywhere in fact it contains no time. cells, plants, and humans can reproduce infinitely as long as we have energy supplied to us. Infinity and time does not intrigue me yet they are fun to think about to keep me occupied

[TheHonorary]

The concept of infinity is, I think, very well accounted for in the theory of multiple dimensions/universes. It's basically the idea that for every action (or inaction) you take, at every moment, the universe splits into two. So to break it down, if you're sitting in your room, deciding whether or not go to college, at the very moment you decide to go, reality splits, and a dimension is created in which you decide not to go. When you think about it, and think about all the possible things you can do/choose/decide every second, and when you think about all the living things in the world who do the same, and when you think about all the alternate universes that were already created and they themselves are subdividing during the history of time, that to me, is the true idea of infinity.

This is a fun concept to think about, for there may be a dimension out there, where you are a non-pot-smoking politician, who is talking on Fox News about how Marijuana is a gateway drug :mad: NOT cool.

When you really sit there and ponder, the possibilities truly are endless. This theory of multiple dimensions also fits in with many other theories.

Also, this works well with the Schrödinger's cat experiment. In this paradox, the cat locked in the box, and because of quantum mechanics and the wave/particle nature of atoms depending on whether they're observed or not, the cat is both dead and alive at the same time until someone opens the box to check on the cat. This would not make sense in a world of a single dimension, but because of multiple dimensions, as soon as you open the box to find a, lets say, dead cat, the dimensions splits and there is one created where you open the box and find a cat thats alive. Therefore, you have both a cat that's dead and alive -- no paradox.

You can really get lost deep in this thinking.