Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Karen W. on 12/03/2007 03:30:27
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If the Universe is all around us and space is everywhere , where does that phrase come from and what exactly does it mean?
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Firstly you must remember that words do not come with rules that prevent assemblages of them that have ambiguous or non existant meanings.
Basically the term "the edge of the universe" has meanings which depend on context.
If one was reading a work of fantasy it would imbue a sort of poetic remoteness to a location.
In a scientific context it is more difficult because as we look further away towards "the edge" as we would normally perceive we have to look back in time and we can see that the universe was much smaller and hotter then. When we look back to the cosmic microwave background the universe was as hot as the surface of a star. This is the edge of what we can see using light and infra red radiation.
However theoretical physics and accelerator experiments have been able to push this "edge" back a lot further to "see" the creation of the elements when the universe was as hot as the centre of a star.
This edge is a time edge and not a space edge like going to the coast and finding the sea for that you should read my comments on the (currently adjacent) topic.
"The Universe !..me is confused about it's size !! "
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The topic Ian (Soul Surfer) refers to is http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=6676.msg70798;topicseen#msg70798
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Thank you George!