Infinite Universe?

[JairCrawford]

I’m continuing to go down this cosmology rabbit hole. Most recently I’ve been reading, watching, and thinking a lot about the implications of an infinite universe.

If the nature of the geometry of the universe itself is infinite, and the cosmic background radiation is largely uniform everywhere throughout said infinite plain… then are we dealing with the possibility of infinite galaxies? Infinite stars? Infinite… everything?

Is this the only conclusion we can reach if the universe is truly a “flat” expanse? According to what I’ve read, most scientists are leaning very heavily in the “no evidence for curvature” direction when it comes to the geometry of the universe. I’m trying to comprehend the implications of that.

[The Valkyrie]

I’m continuing to go down this cosmology rabbit hole. Most recently I’ve been reading, watching, and thinking a lot about the implications of an infinite universe.

If the nature of the geometry of the universe itself is infinite, and the cosmic background radiation is largely uniform everywhere throughout said infinite plain… then are we dealing with the possibility of infinite galaxies? Infinite stars? Infinite… everything?

Is this the only conclusion we can reach if the universe is truly a “flat” expanse? According to what I’ve read, most scientists are leaning very heavily in the “no evidence for curvature” direction when it comes to the geometry of the universe. I’m trying to comprehend the implications of that.

Space is big.

Really big.

[Silver]

I skim read that as Rabbi hole, and I was all like

[Jehanne]

We've been through this before. Physical models of beginningless, infinite and eternal Universes exist in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

[JairCrawford]

We've been through this before. Physical models of beginningless, infinite and eternal Universes exist in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Right but the implications of it went completely over my head before.

So if we are dealing with an open geometry… we have the observable universe. I’ve read some people have made estimations of how much bigger the universe could be beyond our observable universe and I think the number that came out of the study was some 270 times larger than the observable universe.

That’s huge. But… how can that be if we have an infinite universe? 270 times the size of the observable universe still implies a finite number of galaxies does it not?

And if we are talking truly infinite, in the purest sense… how far does it go? Are we talking, “we have doppelgängers on an almost identical earth somewhere with minor fluctuations over and over and over again”?

[purplepurpose]

"we dont know".

[Jehanne]

We've been through this before. Physical models of beginningless, infinite and eternal Universes exist in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Right but the implications of it went completely over my head before.

So if we are dealing with an open geometry… we have the observable universe. I’ve read some people have made estimations of how much bigger the universe could be beyond our observable universe and I think the number that came out of the study was some 270 times larger than the observable universe.

That’s huge. But… how can that be if we have an infinite universe? 270 times the size of the observable universe still implies a finite number of galaxies does it not?

And if we are talking truly infinite, in the purest sense… how far does it go? Are we talking, “we have doppelgängers on an almost identical earth somewhere with minor fluctuations over and over and over again”?

For me, an infinite Universe, in both space and time, is no different than an infinite set of prime numbers.

[Peebothuhlu]

I’m continuing to go down this cosmology rabbit hole. Most recently I’ve been reading, watching, and thinking a lot about the implications of an infinite universe.

If the nature of the geometry of the universe itself is infinite, and the cosmic background radiation is largely uniform everywhere throughout said infinite plain… then are we dealing with the possibility of infinite galaxies? Infinite stars? Infinite… everything?

Is this the only conclusion we can reach if the universe is truly a “flat” expanse? According to what I’ve read, most scientists are leaning very heavily in the “no evidence for curvature” direction when it comes to the geometry of the universe. I’m trying to comprehend the implications of that.

I have to ask....

Why does this matter to your mind?

Even assuming we build giant 'Put-put Orions' it'll be in the tens of thousands of years for humanity to spread across just a small section of our galaxy.

In so many million (Billion?) years  the Andromda galaxy will crash into and 'Merge' with our own. Assuming we're still a space faring species that's a whole shed load of 'New' territory throwing things about and adding to what we could investigate/settle/strip mine.

Since almost EVERYTHING else we can see is actually accelerating away from us.... Even with the bigest, antimatter or even Alucubra drives we aren't ever getting out there. It's all gone.

All these postulations are millions of years in our future making.

We'll be lucky enough to see Musk land back on the Moon and onward to Mars, with maybe some sort of angagethics and/or medical life enhancers to extend/enhacne our time before we toddle off the mortal coil.

Watch and be amazined by the things we're building NOW... Not where every thing is going gazillions of years in the future.

Cheers.  

Not at work.

[Ranjr]

If the universe is infinite and curved, wouldn't it appear flat to us?  Like Kansas.

[Mister Agenda]

I’m continuing to go down this cosmology rabbit hole. Most recently I’ve been reading, watching, and thinking a lot about the implications of an infinite universe.

If the nature of the geometry of the universe itself is infinite, and the cosmic background radiation is largely uniform everywhere throughout said infinite plain… then are we dealing with the possibility of infinite galaxies? Infinite stars? Infinite… everything?

Is this the only conclusion we can reach if the universe is truly a “flat” expanse? According to what I’ve read, most scientists are leaning very heavily in the “no evidence for curvature” direction when it comes to the geometry of the universe. I’m trying to comprehend the implications of that.

We have no way of knowing yet if space is infinite, but the universe is future infinite. It will not exist forever as it does now, but will continue on in some form whether it is as an ever-thinning cloud of photons, collapses into a point again, oscillates, or has some kind of phase change.