If you read the second part of the novel “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, then you know that there is a very good restaurant on the edge of the Universe. In reality, everything is much more complicated and confusing. What will we see on the edge of the universe?
So, the entire observed space originates 13.8 billion years ago from the Big Bang event. The space expanded, the matter yielded to gravitational attraction, and we got a ready-made Universe. Despite its vastness, there is a limit to our review.
At a certain distance, galaxies and stars elude the view, and we cannot look even further. If the Universe is infinite, as modern science thinks, then the edge is useless to search. He simply does not. And if it is finite? What will we see?
Diagram of the Lambda-CBR Universe (from the Big Bang to our era).
Now scientists are spending all their strength to get closer to observations at the time of the Big Bang. The fact is that the light moves at a certain speed. Therefore, watching the galaxy distant by billions of light years, we must understand that its light had to move towards us for billions of years. So, the deeper we look, the farther in time we look. Therefore, scientists are trying to find out what was at the very beginning, what the first stars and galaxies looked like. And of course I want to see the moment of the Big Bang itself (so far only fantasies and dreams, but scientists are serious).
But back to our edge of the universe. Imagine that we are really able to overcome the border of the visible Universe and get to a certain line. Three interesting theories should be considered here:
- Loop
Some believe that our Universe is a huge loop. Therefore, if you go on a long trip on a spaceship and go all the way around the loop, you will return to the starting point. That is, the edge will be your start.
- Singularity
The idea is that a black hole is represented as an edge. None of us has ever been in a black hole, so we do not know exactly where this passage leads. There is an assumption that the lucky survivor will be in another universe. So, the edge of our Universe is the horizon of events of a black hole, which leads to an alien Universe.
- There is no edge
This is the most popular explanation. The universe is expanding, and therefore infinite. You can say: “But, if there is a starting point, and the Universe grows in size and grows, it means that it must still be at a certain stage of expansion”. Perhaps, but we will never have enough developed technologies to get ahead of this expansion and look beyond the possible edge. For us, outer space is infinite and the border, the end, the devil will not work.
Finally, we present one of the most exotic assumptions. There is an opinion that on the edge of the Universe we will find our own double, which will view its reflection with the same surprised look. Of course, this is already from the realm of fantasy, but still interesting.
