Our Universe, I believe, does not possess a "skin" or an "outside edge" as you are thinking. That reflects linear thought; our spacetime is curved, and curves in on itself. If you travel far enough in the same direction, you will arrive back where you started from.The expansion of the Universe due to the Big Bang is difficult to picture without thinking of the Universe as a "sphere." With the exception of galaxies gravitationally bound in Local Groups, everything is expanding away from everything in all directions. Everything is expanding from that "beginning point," which we are getting closer in determining by viewing celestial objects farther and farther away from us. Because of the immense distance involved, as well as the speed of light, we are actually looking "backward" in Time. Hence, we are looking closer and closer to the time when the Big Bang occurred.
For example, looking at the Great Andromeda Galaxy we "see" it as it appeared 2.2 million years ago. It is 2.2 million light years away from us. The most distant object we have been able to determine is approximately 15-20 billion light years away from us. Thus, we know the Universe is at least that old.
Back to the "edge" thing. Remember, spacetime is created in the Big Bang. Everything expands from everything. We look out and see things farther and farther away, which are farther and farther in the past Extrapolating backwards then: all celestial objects exist at their own local "edges" of the Universe. The "now" is the "edge." Beyond that? The Future. It's a relative, temporal thing.
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[monger=000FFF,FF0000]"I Ride the Stormcloud and the Night!"[/monger]
[Edited 2 times, lastly by Graysith on September 21, 2000]
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posted 09-21-2000 09:18 PM
