• Question: Does the universe have an edge?

    Asked by nicenadia to Alessandro, Angela, Claudia, Marina, Phil on 9 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Claudia Krehl

      Claudia Krehl answered on 9 Mar 2013:

      I think that is a tricky question even for a scientist in physics! I think there are two main theories to this. One says that the universe is expanding and it doesn’t have an edge and the other is that is it finite. But even if it is finite it still doesn’t have an edge because the space is bend due to matter and gravity. It’s almost like the Earth int he sense that the Earth clearly has an edge but you can carry on walking around it forever and never see the edge.

    • Photo: Phillip Wilkinson

      Phillip Wilkinson answered on 9 Mar 2013:

      Great question and one that the brightest minds are struggling to answer, so I have no chance!

      Although if you watch this very cool video it will give you better understanding of just how much of the universe we have observed:

      This really fun website also demonstrates the sheer scale of the universe. From the smallest thing possible to the predicted size of the universe:

      http://www.scaleofuniverse.com/

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