• Question: if space is infinite, where is it getting the space to become infinite from and why isn't there an end to space.

    Asked by anon-199013 to Srinath, Natasha, Nana, Luisa, Gautam, Alex on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Marialuisa Crosatti

      Marialuisa Crosatti answered on 7 Mar 2019:

      I do not know enough about physics or astronomy to explain this. Sorry

    • Photo: Alexander Allen

      Alexander Allen answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      This is a difficult question to answer… I’m going to do my best but it’s a really hard concept to explain so you’ll have to forgive me if it seems strange. The problem is that it really is strange!

      Space and time did not exist before the big bang. This creation of the universe brought both space and time into existence… There was no before the big bang because time wasn’t even a thing. Imagine nothing existing… not an empty black void where you float but just… nothing… It’s hard to think of. When the universe was created, everything moved so fast that space and time were completely inseparable and everything was a complete mess.

      Fast forward to today when space is expanding… I’ll use my favourite analogy: It’s not perfect but it’s a good starting point. Take a deflated balloon and draw dots on it with a pen… They could represent stars, or galaxies or even atoms. They are fixed distances apart.

      Now blow up the balloon. The space between the dots increases and the dots will probably swell in size too. Everything expands away from each other but nothing ends up getting closer. This is how space expands except in more dimensions… with the distances in all directions increasing.

      This leads to questions such as “is space really infinite?” The more you learn, the more there is to learn

    • Photo: Natasha Dowey

      Natasha Dowey answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      When I think about the Big Bang, and how everything came from nothing, it makes my head hurt! As a geologist, I am used to seeing a problem , holding it my hand even, and then solving it- looking at a volcanic rock to understand the eruption, or looking at some data from a well drilled deep into the ground to see what it can tell us. Physics is quite cool because you can’t always see it with your own eyes- but you can use evidence from lots of different things to bring together the story, and use maths to understand how it works. I really like Alex’s answer about the balloon!

Comments

  • Photo: anon-198901

    anon-198901 commented on :

    Space is AWESOME and that is why it grows and grows. There are millions of stars and galaxies to explore but I’m not sure anyone has actually found out how big it is. I think the Earth is enough for me :D. From Farheen 🙂