Far out cosmology: what does the universe expand into? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 03:44 (12 days ago) @ David Turell

itself?:

https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/what-is-the-universe-expanding-into-if-its-...

"The expansion of the universe is, in some ways, similar. But this analogy gets one thing wrong — while the dough expands into the baking pan, the universe doesn't have anything to expand into. It just expands into itself.

"It can feel like a brain teaser, but the universe is considered everything within the universe. In the expanding universe, there is no pan. Just dough. Even if there were a pan, it would be part of the universe and therefore it would expand with the pan.

***

"Scientists know the universe is expanding because they can track other galaxies as they move away from ours. They define expansion using the rate that other galaxies move away from us. This definition allows them to imagine expansion without needing something to expand into.

***

"...the name Big Bang is misleading. It wasn't a giant explosion, as the name suggests, but a time where the universe expanded rapidly.

***

"...in 1929, Hubble published his famous paper that confirmed the entire universe was expanding, and that the rate it's expanding at is increasing.

"This discovery continues to puzzle astrophysicists. What phenomenon allows the universe to overcome the force of gravity keeping it together while also expanding by pulling objects in the universe apart? And on top of all that, its expansion rate is speeding up over time.

***

"Scientists haven't been able to directly measure where the energy causing this accelerating expansion comes from. They haven't been able to detect it or measure it. Because they can't see or directly measure this type of energy, they call it dark energy.

"According to researchers' models, dark energy must be the most common form of energy in the universe, making up about 68% of the total energy in the universe. The energy from everyday matter, which makes up the Earth, the Sun and everything we can see, accounts for only about 5% of all energy.

***

"One way to make these theories work together is the multiverse theory. There are many theories that look beyond our current universe to explain how gravity and the quantum world work together. Some of the leading theories include string theory, brane cosmology, loop quantum theory and many others.

"Regardless, the universe will continue to expand, with the distance between the Milky Way and most other galaxies getting longer over time."

Comment: so we are left with the concept that the universe expands into itself. There is nothing out there to expand into. Wow! In creating the universe God has left us with puzzles. Not just that the basis of our universe is quantum mechanics.