Outside the universe there's no time neither space.

Well, if there's nothing to expand into, then how is the universe still expanding?

What's there to stop it?

I love how everyone is posting information about the universe like its proven fact and still not theory.

I call you all on reifying.

Anyway, I've never heard of this fear, but I do suggest that you NEVER take calculus. Also, definitely see someone about the anxiety attacks. I know that they aren't anywhere close to fun, and if you have a lot, it's a problem that needs to be addressed by a professional.

I've has a single anxiety attack in my life. Terrible. I've learned to control myself ever since, though. Until recently I used to be a really unnestable person.

You guys are making GreatDragon too scared to even read this thread with what you're getting at.

He can't be scared until he reads it, though.

Well, sorry to scare anyone...

What's to stop the universe you ask? Nothing, in a literal sense....
How can something grow into nothing? There's nothing to expand into, so how is it expanding?

If you have a vacuum (as in, nothing present) contained within a box, and you add gas into the box, the gas will expand to fill the box. Imagine the universe as that gas, but expanding in a box that has no walls.

There is dark matter and dark energy in a vacuum.

The analogy works, except that our conception of nothingness in the first place does not even consist of nothingness.

The idea is that if there's nothing preventing the universe from expanding, then there must be "space" of some sort beyond it. For example, if you got to the edge of the last galaxy in the universe, you could stick a ruler out and still measure into space. Of course, by putting that ruler out, you'd be expanding the universe.

Well, I still think that there's something else outside the universe.
If there's a vacuum, then that still got to have some sort of 'dark matter' or something, right? What if there was an absolute absense of everything?

'Our' conception of nothingness is inconsistent. What you believe may not be what I was implying. Provide a source to your claims, please. Specifically 'there is dark matter and dark energy in a vacuum'.


You're assuming you can reach the edge of the universe. And:

I bet you hate algebra class.

Anything that could be infinite was "undefined" for me until calculus.

That's what I meant.

To be more specific, dark energy is relevant here. Dark matter could just be unseen, massive objects.

They're still theoretical, but the behavior of galaxies and such makes it obvious that there is something our current physical theories are not accounting for. Dark matter/energy is a widespread explanation for these things, and in some universities they teach dark energy as the most plausible explanation.

There's also cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. It's energy spread evenly throughout the entire visible universe that supposedly remains from the big bang.

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/cosmology/darkmatter.html
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_cosmo_fluct.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/uni_matter.html


Right. I was going with New-Guy's idea that the universe is limited in volume and is not prevented from expanding. Many say that the universe is infinite in volume. One explanation of the big bang is that after being a point of infinite density, the universe immediately expanded into infinity. It compares the current expansion of the universe to a loaf of uncooked bread with raisins in it. When you cook it, the entire thing expands, which causes the raisins to spread apart. Or it's like a balloon that you draw dots on, and when you inflate it, the dots expand. The dots/raisins aren't flying apart by themselves, they're spreading because the universe holding them is.

That's just another theory, though. It also probably depends on how you define universe.

I was going to point that out too. I haven't time to read up on the dark energy/matter tonight, but I'll make a point of it tomorrow.

I get that, I dream at night of a gigantic grid, it is clearly a grid, but the lines and background have no color, [as in, no color, not black] and there is a familiar but undefinable changing object that appears infinitely big before me, then far far into the distance.
I don't get scared but it's a weird dream.

Weird, I thought I was the only one that gets those.
I never see a grid but I do see an object. The object appears to be black to me.
It gives me weird sensations like a combination of fear and appeasement.
Upon witnessing the dream I either A) wake up or B) experience a vision. Yes it sounds crazy but I will see something totally unrecognizable by the current state of my brain, memorize it, and then in days to even months I will see exactly what I saw within the vision. You could call it deja vu I suppose. The thing I like most about it is that in the vision I'm not only experiencing a site, but I can hear and even tell what my current state of mind is (what I am thinking about.) but when I wake up I forget everything until the event occurs.