Universe is 156 Billion L.Y. accross!

[Silent_One]

Astronomers size up the Universe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3753115.stm

The Universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide, say astronomers. ( )
The estimate comes from data obtained by a space probe that is examining the so-called Cosmic Background Radiation - often called the echo of the Big Bang.

The echo contains information of what the cosmos was like when it was young and how it might develop.

The cosmos is 13.7bn years old but the stretching of space with its expansion after the Big Bang means that simple distance measurements do not apply.

I like this part.......

To get the picture try to imagine the Universe a million years after the Big Bang. Light travels for a year, covering one light-year. But at that time, the Universe was about a thousand times smaller than it is today meaning that one light-year has now become stretched to about a thousand light-years.

:?
I wounder if I need a few more decimals places in my sig......

 

[London Geezer]

Posted already

But anyway, it's pretty crazy. Does it mean that distances between us and far away stars are also "wrong"?

 

[Silent_One]

Posted already

But anyway, it's pretty crazy. Does it mean that distances between us and far away stars are also "wrong"?

Good question. If "expansion" has stopped then we should be able to trust our measurements, no?

 

[London Geezer]

Posted already

But anyway, it's pretty crazy. Does it mean that distances between us and far away stars are also "wrong"?

Good question. If "expansion" has stopped then we should be able to trust our measurements, no?

But... Has "expansion" stopped?

 

[accidentalsuccess]

we don't know anything about how the universe is currently expanding, much less what it USED to be about.

ahhh the joys of theoretical physics.

those guys have offices down the hall from me. . . we always joke that they have this conversation 3/7 days a week:


"hey bob, think of anything today?"

"nope jim, I didn't"

"Ok, cya tomorrow"

 

[London Geezer]

we don't know anything about how the universe is currently expanding, much less what it USED to be about.

ahhh the joys of theoretical physics.

those guys have offices down the hall from me. . . we always joke that they have this conversation 3/7 days a week:


"hey bob, think of anything today?"

"nope jim, I didn't"

"Ok, cya tomorrow"

Heh, if they get paid for it... I mean they do have to make up for years and years of bullying for being total dorks at school, so i think they deserve an easy life.

 

[Deepak]

Paradoxically I think we will never be able to know the exact size of universe....so sad...

 

[jvd]

Its okay . I have my time machine. I will just launch foward to the year 50 billion ajd (afer joe desantis (me) cause u know the time machine made me important) and find out if we learned it .



hmmm sorry guys seems we died off only 10 years after I invited the time machine. So u better go make love to someone hot. Only have 3 days left before we die out .

 

[Mendel]

If you want to understand these things a bit better, or confuse yourself more... http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/cosmology.php (scroll down, look at the questions links, you can even ask your own questions!)

The thing is, universe is homogenous and isotropic in larger scales, to every observer. If we see observable universe of 150 lightyears "wide" to every direction, also the Splogaagalien in Betagron 5 Galaxy, far far away in the "edge" of the universe observes a universe 150 lightyears "wide" to every direction.

Also there is a difference between the observable universe, that we usually refer to, and the *actual* size of the universe, which may well be infinite!