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Encylopedia > Astronomy

Universe


The Universe is big, very very very big. The size of the universe is one of those fields of research that spends millions of dollars/pounds per year and can never actually be answered.

We are not even sure where the Universe came from. Everyone has heard of the Big Bang Theory but like all theories it has flaws and of course no way to actually test if it is true. Some people believe the Universe is truly infinite but what we see is just a small fraction in space. If you think of a Universe like a specific area in space with its own galaxies and stars and then repeat it so now you have multiverses.

Lets get back to the original topic of this page. The Universe. The universe as we know it contains all the matter, energy, galaxies, stars and planets that we can detect. Our Observable Universe is limited to the telescopes that we view it with but using instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope we have taken pictures of very small areas of space that indicate a viewable distance of approximately 15 billion years. This number comes from something called Red Shift. It is assumed the universe is expanding and towards the outer areas of the universe it is expanding faster and faster, as Light is stretched its colour for want of a better definition (radiation frequency) moves towards Red Light. The redder the light the further past in time we measure.

Of course, this is only part of the question of how large the Universe that we know is. If the universe is expanding then the pictures we take of light over 15 billion years old then where is the objects that made the light now? 20 billion years away? 25 billion years away? Tough question. Now think about pointing a telescope on the other side of the night sky and we have just doubled the size of the universe. So as a very rough guide we believe it is at least 30 billion light years across but perhaps upto and beyond 100 billion light years in diameter.

Universe in other languages:-

Cebuano:tibuok kalibutan
Chinese:yǔzhòu
宇宙
French:m univers
German:nt universum
Greek:n σύμπαν
Indonesian:alam semesta
Italian:m universo
Japanese:uchuu
宇宙
Nederlands:n heelal
Norwegian:nt univers
Polish:m wszechświat
Portuguese:m universo
Spanish:m universo
Tagalog:sandaigdig
Turkish:evren