How Big is the Entire Universe?

Starts with a Bang ^ | 7/18/12 | Ethan Siegel

[The Free Engineer]

how can the universe be a trillion light years wide and only 14 billion years old?
how can it expand faster then light?

[onedoug]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[Condor51]

*** I don’t believe in physical matter. ***

Basically you're correct. 'Physical matter' is composed mostly of empty space.

For example:
Say you place a marble, representing the nucleus of a Hydrogen atom, on one goal line of a football field, and a ball bearing, representing the electron, on the opposite goal line. THAT is what a Hydrogen atom would look like on the quantum scale. Mostly EMPTY space. So 'matter' is relative to the scale you're talking about. Every nanosecond billions of atomic particles are going right through our body and we don't even know it as they're going through our body's 'empty space'.

*** We are all imagining this together within the confines of God’s laws.***

That may well be true. As least the part about "within the confines of God’s laws".

I do believe in the Big Bang but that doesn't preclude God from being involved as 'something' had to make the Big Bang happen (and God said: Let there be light), and 'some one' had to make the Singularity 'explode' in the first place.

So we could be like a huge Ant Farm (how big is 'the Universe' to an ant?). Or 'we' could be like some super-duper Computer Game like 'Sim City' that God's playing.

And I don't think 'we' are ever meant to know that.

[BitWielder1]

The fact that you can go to the beach and see a sharp horizon and see ships disappear below it is a good indication that the world is finite.
On a flat world, the ships would just appear smaller and smaller and eventually vanish like in a fog.

[jmax]

>>> "How Big is the Entire Universe?" <<<

I ran a cycle on all the theories, calcs and factors you posted and came up with the answer ----> SLIGHTLY SMALLER THAN SKOKIE, ILLINOIS.

[JPG]

10-4 on that. The thought of NEVER ending is impossible to imagine but the thought of NEVER beginning, even doubly so.

[Peter W. Kessler]

I’ve given a lot of thought to this, and I have come to the conclusion that it’s really, really big.

[Starstruck]

How are astrophysicists supposed to maintain any dignity if it turns out the universe is shaped like a donut?

I know. While looking through a telescope I occasionally see the back of my head. Then I realize it is the back of my head billions of years ago and that really blows my mind.

[InterceptPoint]

The Universe pisses me off.

I would have chosen different language but, if I get your drift, I agree with you. How can something be so big and so vast that are we not allowed to see it all and to go there?

Why?

Very, very frustrating.

[Lazamataz]

I say we ban the Universe.

It's just sitting there, doing nothing. Damned waste of precious resources, if you ask me.

[Twinkie]

The Bible states that the Lord created us for his pleasure. Somehow, at the present time, it looks like we aren’t too pleasurable. - The child in the photo with outstretched arms describing “how big” explains it all.

[Vaduz]

I knoe that all that I do know that I know one thing that I know nothing.

Plato

something like that don’t recall it for sure.

[Vaduz]

I know that all that I do know that I know one thing that I know nothing.

Plato

something like that don’t recall it for sure.

dang e

[Texas Songwriter]

There are no actual infinites. It is said that our galaxy has between 100 billion and 200 billion stars. It is said that there are in excess of 100 billion galaxies. The distance, on average between stars averages about 30 trillion miles. To give an example that allows a modicum of analogous comparison.....If a grain of sand on all of the beaches and deserts of the world was considered a star, and the distance between each grain of sand was 30 trillion miless.....that gives one a starting place. Count the number of grains of sand on all beaches and deserts and that is about how many stars that we know exists. But it must be remembered that the universe continues to expand, and moreover, it is expanding as a rate which is faster than the speed of light.

It is a remarkable, reasonable universe essentially governed in the physical realm by essentially 4 forces. We sent up a space probe in 1977 and it is traveling at about 17,000 miles per hour, and it is only now leaving our solar system. That is 35 years (roughly) moving at 17,000 per hour, each hour for 35 years and it is only now leaving our solar system.

[TomasUSMC]

If you hear the aliens ask how small it is, then you know we are in trouble

[AFreeBird]

Well, it’s all relative, right? So perhaps the universe is no bigger than say, a golf ball. God may not play dice with the universe, but maybe it’s a golf ball on the Big Guy’s putting green.

[Graybeard58]

Yet we see spectacular galaxies more than halfway across the Universe.

If we don't know where it ends, how can we determine the half way point? But I do get your point.

[MHGinTN]

If it’s shaped like a torroid then there’s a cop somewhere, right?

[Graybeard58]

God wasnt born, he was always there— thats stange to the human mind, and hard to process

That's why I gave it up, a long time ago, it makes my brain hurt.

I'm reminded of Matthew 19:

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

[LibWhacker]

I agree 100%. The sad thing is far too many people do not marvel at it or have any inclination to study it (not people in this thread necessarily, but in general).