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The explanation in the link I posted just shows why there's such a big difference between the age of the universe in comparison to the size of it.
I have no idea if we'll ever advance far enough to be capable of intergalactic travel, short of finding some way to bypass space-time. Even then part of the problem is that the universe will still continue expanding at a faster rate. At quintillions of years from now, galaxies would be spread so far apart that the light from any of them would be too far to reach us no matter where we are. Assuming the Milky Way galaxy still exists with life in the far future (probably not us though), there'd be no hint that anything else exists beyond the galaxy. The Sun would be long gone. Even the stars within our own galaxy would eventually become too far to be seen. The night sky would be very dark indeed.
Fast forward to the end. If the expansion of the universe continues to increase indefinitely, there's some thought that the very last traces of the universe would flicker out a google years from now. Nothing of it would exist. Even photons would eventually wink out of existence. At best, there'd be nothing left except the random static of infinite probabilities within the quantum fluctuations of hyperspace from where the universe probably originated. Imagine looking at a television channel with no broadcast where there's only random static flickering on the screen. In other words, there might be a random static of probabilities that flicker in and out all the time.
The trouble is that it's really difficult to even remotely imagine anything beyond the actual horizon of the universe or how far that might be. We have no real idea what conditions existed that allowed the Big Bang to happen, nor do we have any idea what conditions may exist when the universe is gone. My guess is that the conditions are the same at both extremes.
The only exceptions to that I can think of is if the universe itself is an island within an infinitely greater structure - a megaverse. Even that could be part of a fractal structure that's arranged at infinitely larger scales. There are many possibilities of what the universe really is. What we seem to understand is that there are things that are extremely small and there are things that are extremely large and vast.
I'm not sure we can really define the nature of the expansion. I don't think it can be thought of like an expanding balloon. If you take into consideration the structure of the observable universe, galaxies and clusters seem to be arranged like a complex web of strings or filaments that are somewhat linked together. The general view of the evolution of the universe is that in its early stage there was greater density. As matter began to cluster together and the universe continued expanding, the structure of the universe appears to be more of a filament pattern. (See images below)
If the bubble universe concept is correct, it's extremely doubtful we'd ever be able to travel to one short of somehow manipulating or bypassing higher dimensions. I'm not sure how likely that could be unless we first understand the nature of dimensions. We have no idea what the nature of time is. I don't mean ticks of a clock, but rather time as a dimension. It's thought that dimensions exist at extremely small scales but can be vast or infinite in proportion. Dimensions are likely to be tightly wrapped around other dimensions, or the might be progressionally interconnected. One example I think about is the concept of direction of East and West (although those aren't dimensions). If you travel East, at what point does it connect with West? Answer: they doesn't connect at all. They are both part of the same thing, just different directions.
Dimensions could be very similar, meaning I don't see how they could be altered or manipulated. We might be able to simulate an effect, or we might find a way to take advantage of certain dimensions in a limited way, but whether we could ever actually change them looks pretty doubtful. But that's exactly what it would take for long interstellar or intergalactic travel.
Traveling between galaxies seem extremely unlikely, because the farther away something is, the farther back in time it is. The M-31 (Andromeda) galaxy is our nearest neighbor in terms of galaxies the size of the Milky Way. But we're also seeing it as it was 2.5 million years ago. I'm sure a lot of things have changed there since then. Even if you could travel at the speed of light (which would alter travel time), or take a shortcut through a worm hole (which is only theoretical), you'd still have to calculate exactly where the galaxy would be when you arrive. Otherwise you'd completely miss it and end up in a location where it once was but now is no longer there. Furthermore, you wouldn't be able to select a specific star in that galaxy as a destination because the actual location of that star would have changed position from what we see from the Earth. A lot of stars might not even exist anymore and a lot of new stars have probably formed over the last 2.5 million years. And that's just talking about our nearest neighbor in our local cluster of galaxies.
I dunno. It all gets pretty complex for my primative mind to comprehend apart from speculation.
The explanation in the link I posted just shows why there's such a big difference between the age of the universe in comparison to the size of it.
I have no idea if we'll ever advance far enough to be capable of intergalactic travel, short of finding some way to bypass space-time. Even then part of the problem is that the universe will still continue expanding at a faster rate. At quintillions of years from now, galaxies would be spread so far apart that the light from any of them would be too far to reach us no matter where we are. Assuming the Milky Way galaxy still exists with life in the far future (probably not us though), there'd be no hint that anything else exists beyond the galaxy. The Sun would be long gone. Even the stars within our own galaxy would eventually become too far to be seen. The night sky would be very dark indeed.
Fast forward to the end. If the expansion of the universe continues to increase indefinitely, there's some thought that the very last traces of the universe would flicker out a google years from now. Nothing of it would exist. Even photons would eventually wink out of existence. At best, there'd be nothing left except the random static of infinite probabilities within the quantum fluctuations of hyperspace from where the universe probably originated. Imagine looking at a television channel with no broadcast where there's only random static flickering on the screen. In other words, there might be a random static of probabilities that flicker in and out all the time.
The trouble is that it's really difficult to even remotely imagine anything beyond the actual horizon of the universe or how far that might be. We have no real idea what conditions existed that allowed the Big Bang to happen, nor do we have any idea what conditions may exist when the universe is gone. My guess is that the conditions are the same at both extremes.
The only exceptions to that I can think of is if the universe itself is an island within an infinitely greater structure - a megaverse. Even that could be part of a fractal structure that's arranged at infinitely larger scales. There are many possibilities of what the universe really is. What we seem to understand is that there are things that are extremely small and there are things that are extremely large and vast.
I'm not sure we can really define the nature of the expansion. I don't think it can be thought of like an expanding balloon. If you take into consideration the structure of the observable universe, galaxies and clusters seem to be arranged like a complex web of strings or filaments that are somewhat linked together. The general view of the evolution of the universe is that in its early stage there was greater density. As matter began to cluster together and the universe continued expanding, the structure of the universe appears to be more of a filament pattern. (See images below)
If the bubble universe concept is correct, it's extremely doubtful we'd ever be able to travel to one short of somehow manipulating or bypassing higher dimensions. I'm not sure how likely that could be unless we first understand the nature of dimensions. We have no idea what the nature of time is. I don't mean ticks of a clock, but rather time as a dimension. It's thought that dimensions exist at extremely small scales but can be vast or infinite in proportion. Dimensions are likely to be tightly wrapped around other dimensions, or the might be progressionally interconnected. One example I think about is the concept of direction of East and West (although those aren't dimensions). If you travel East, at what point does it connect with West? Answer: they doesn't connect at all. They are both part of the same thing, just different directions.
Dimensions could be very similar, meaning I don't see how they could be altered or manipulated. We might be able to simulate an effect, or we might find a way to take advantage of certain dimensions in a limited way, but whether we could ever actually change them looks pretty doubtful. But that's exactly what it would take for long interstellar or intergalactic travel.
Traveling between galaxies seem extremely unlikely, because the farther away something is, the farther back in time it is. The M-31 (Andromeda) galaxy is our nearest neighbor in terms of galaxies the size of the Milky Way. But we're also seeing it as it was 2.5 million years ago. I'm sure a lot of things have changed there since then. Even if you could travel at the speed of light (which would alter travel time), or take a shortcut through a worm hole (which is only theoretical), you'd still have to calculate exactly where the galaxy would be when you arrive. Otherwise you'd completely miss it and end up in a location where it once was but now is no longer there. Furthermore, you wouldn't be able to select a specific star in that galaxy as a destination because the actual location of that star would have changed position from what we see from the Earth. A lot of stars might not even exist anymore and a lot of new stars have probably formed over the last 2.5 million years. And that's just talking about our nearest neighbor in our local cluster of galaxies.
I dunno. It all gets pretty complex for my primative mind to comprehend apart from speculation.
I have to agree that we don't have a full understanding of the universe. As the video indicated, the universe seems pretty clumpy which is exactly what we see in the WMAP view of the MRB. In the images I posted, since we can't see Dark Matter or Dark Energy, we see the arrangement of the galaxies and clusters. What appears to be Dark Flow is one of the mysteries we have yet to unravel. The more we understand the universe around us, the more incredible it is.
Here are a couple of videos based on the computerized "Millennium Simulation" of the Universe that are well worth seeing. The first one gives a nice explanation of how the universe was formed. The second give a jaw-dropping look at the complexity and scale of it. I highly recommend viewing them in Full Screen on YouTube. Enjoy the ride.
The explanation in the link I posted just shows why there's such a big difference between the age of the universe in comparison to the size of it.
I have no idea if we'll ever advance far enough to be capable of intergalactic travel, short of finding some way to bypass space-time. Even then part of the problem is that the universe will still continue expanding at a faster rate. At quintillions of years from now, galaxies would be spread so far apart that the light from any of them would be too far to reach us no matter where we are. Assuming the Milky Way galaxy still exists with life in the far future (probably not us though), there'd be no hint that anything else exists beyond the galaxy. The Sun would be long gone. Even the stars within our own galaxy would eventually become too far to be seen. The night sky would be very dark indeed.
Fast forward to the end. If the expansion of the universe continues to increase indefinitely, there's some thought that the very last traces of the universe would flicker out a google years from now. Nothing of it would exist. Even photons would eventually wink out of existence. At best, there'd be nothing left except the random static of infinite probabilities within the quantum fluctuations of hyperspace from where the universe probably originated. Imagine looking at a television channel with no broadcast where there's only random static flickering on the screen. In other words, there might be a random static of probabilities that flicker in and out all the time.
The trouble is that it's really difficult to even remotely imagine anything beyond the actual horizon of the universe or how far that might be. We have no real idea what conditions existed that allowed the Big Bang to happen, nor do we have any idea what conditions may exist when the universe is gone. My guess is that the conditions are the same at both extremes.
The only exceptions to that I can think of is if the universe itself is an island within an infinitely greater structure - a megaverse. Even that could be part of a fractal structure that's arranged at infinitely larger scales. There are many possibilities of what the universe really is. What we seem to understand is that there are things that are extremely small and there are things that are extremely large and vast.
I'm not sure we can really define the nature of the expansion. I don't think it can be thought of like an expanding balloon. If you take into consideration the structure of the observable universe, galaxies and clusters seem to be arranged like a complex web of strings or filaments that are somewhat linked together. The general view of the evolution of the universe is that in its early stage there was greater density. As matter began to cluster together and the universe continued expanding, the structure of the universe appears to be more of a filament pattern. (See images below)
If the bubble universe concept is correct, it's extremely doubtful we'd ever be able to travel to one short of somehow manipulating or bypassing higher dimensions. I'm not sure how likely that could be unless we first understand the nature of dimensions. We have no idea what the nature of time is. I don't mean ticks of a clock, but rather time as a dimension. It's thought that dimensions exist at extremely small scales but can be vast or infinite in proportion. Dimensions are likely to be tightly wrapped around other dimensions, or the might be progressionally interconnected. One example I think about is the concept of direction of East and West (although those aren't dimensions). If you travel East, at what point does it connect with West? Answer: they doesn't connect at all. They are both part of the same thing, just different directions.
Dimensions could be very similar, meaning I don't see how they could be altered or manipulated. We might be able to simulate an effect, or we might find a way to take advantage of certain dimensions in a limited way, but whether we could ever actually change them looks pretty doubtful. But that's exactly what it would take for long interstellar or intergalactic travel.
Traveling between galaxies seem extremely unlikely, because the farther away something is, the farther back in time it is. The M-31 (Andromeda) galaxy is our nearest neighbor in terms of galaxies the size of the Milky Way. But we're also seeing it as it was 2.5 million years ago. I'm sure a lot of things have changed there since then. Even if you could travel at the speed of light (which would alter travel time), or take a shortcut through a worm hole (which is only theoretical), you'd still have to calculate exactly where the galaxy would be when you arrive. Otherwise you'd completely miss it and end up in a location where it once was but now is no longer there. Furthermore, you wouldn't be able to select a specific star in that galaxy as a destination because the actual location of that star would have changed position from what we see from the Earth. A lot of stars might not even exist anymore and a lot of new stars have probably formed over the last 2.5 million years. And that's just talking about our nearest neighbor in our local cluster of galaxies.
I dunno. It all gets pretty complex for my primative mind to comprehend apart from speculation.
It is disheartening that in the future our particular universe will be so expanded that light from distant galaxies etc. will not even reach our planet; let's hope we keep good records...LOL.
I read that black holes will probably be the longest lived stellar phenomena but that they too will eventually evaporate due to Hawking's Radiation.
Theoritically if the multi-verse and brane theories are correct; then we actually can go back in time before our Big Bang event, which arose from the collision of 2 or more branes. I think the limit is when the branes were formed, but I may be wrong on that one.
I think once we understand gravity and have our Theory of Everything....and have an adequate power source; Than warp type speeds are possible.
I agree about intergalactic travel...even Star Trek type spaceships cannot hope to even traverse our own galaxy; let alone travel to another.. Also as you allude to, spacetime is expanding and apparently accelerating as well.
Thanks for your great post...your speculations are informed and always interesting.
I have to agree that we don't have a full understanding of the universe. As the video indicated, the universe seems pretty clumpy which is exactly what we see in the WMAP view of the MRB. In the images I posted, since we can't see Dark Matter or Dark Energy, we see the arrangement of the galaxies and clusters. What appears to be Dark Flow is one of the mysteries we have yet to unravel. The more we understand the universe around us, the more incredible it is.
Here are a couple of videos based on the computerized "Millennium Simulation" of the Universe that are well worth seeing. The first one gives a nice explanation of how the universe was formed. The second give a jaw-dropping look at the complexity and scale of it. I highly recommend viewing them in Full Screen on YouTube. Enjoy the ride.
Thanx for the Millennium Simulation. It is so funny that the Cosmic Background Radiation was found BY ACCIDENT....look at the doors it has opened on our species' scientific endeavors.
Unless something along the lines of 'Where No One Has Gone Before' occurs.
I can't watch these vids at work , but I'd prefer to watch them sans the music and 'special' effects.
Makes me wonder when they make movies and shows relating to space and space travel , are they i.e. dumbing weak minds further by goading them to believe they would hear these things in space?
I still can't believe there are those who think Sol revolves around Earth......
Unless something along the lines of 'Where No One Has Gone Before' occurs.
I can't watch these vids at work , but I'd prefer to watch them sans the music and 'special' effects.
Makes me wonder when they make movies and shows relating to space and space travel , are they i.e. dumbing weak minds further by goading them to believe they would hear these things in space?
I still can't believe there are those who think Sol revolves around Earth......
LOL....makes me wonder too......won't be hearing those laser weapons firing in space; but it does make it more exciting. .
Its interesting seeing you find a thread and updating it with nothing
It was a "dark posting".
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