We talked about the Bigbang in history. Someone said space had to stop somewhere. But is that true?
(By space I mean where all the planets ‘float’)
Answer
When you say ‘space stops here’, you are actually saying that there is no further space. But if there is no space there, then there is no ‘further’, since ‘further’ is about ‘distance’, and ‘distance’ is about ‘space’. So it’s all very ambiguous.
We got to know a concept like ‘space’ by living in it. If there had been nothing, there would have been no space. If our universe is finite, then space is also finite. But that does not mean that we can ever reach a limit: space on Earth is also finite, but you can always step further. Based on the measurements of the universe that we make, it looks very much like a universe that is infinite, even if it was born a finite time ago. But we can’t look infinitely far to check it all.
Answered by
prof. Christopher Waelkens
Astronomy
Old Market 13 3000 Leuven
https://www.kuleuven.be/
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