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    Question ID:   15540         Current Version: 1
Question: What is the Universe expanding into?
Category: Science > Astronomy & Space
Keywords: expansion, expand into, Universe
Type: what
Rating:(1 ratings)    Views: 323    Discussions: 0   In Watch Lists: 1  

 
    Answer:
Perhaps the simplest way to look at these questions is the following: if the universe includes, by definition, everything -- all of space, time, matter, energy -- then there can be nothing outside of it (and hence no edge), nothing for it to expand into. Its true that this is contrary to our everyday experience, as is much else in physics and astronomy; but of course our everyday experience does not extend to the entire universe. In some ways this line of argument parallels those in refutations of the "argument by design" for the existence of God.

Another way to look at it: if there were a higher-dimensional space in which the universe were embedded and into which it expands (like a two-dimensional balloon expanding into three-dimensional space), we could have no way of ever measuring the existence or characteristics of such a space. Whether such an unobservable space can truly be said to exist at all is a question best addressed by philosophers such as yourself!

Here is an additional reference you may find helpful:

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmology_faq.html
Source: NASA
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