# What happens when I reach the edge of the universe?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-reach-the-edge-of-the-universe/668588>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 11, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-reach-the-edge-of-the-universe/668588 "2013-09-11T17:49:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-reach-the-edge-of-the-universe/668588/81 "2013-09-16T15:04:15Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Quoth **Tethered Kite** :
> 
> The universe is not speeding up in its expansion as Einstein posited it would. Instead it is decelerating. Could this be a precursor to an accelerating contraction? If so, all we’ll have to do is wait a while and perhaps the edge of the universe will come to us.

You seem to be confused about a number of things. First, Einstein never predicted an accelerating expansion. In various versions of his models, he predicted accelerated contraction, decelerated expansion, and a lack of either expansion or contraction. His models with no expansion or contraction included something called the cosmological constant, and models with a cosmological constant can include accelerated expansion, but Einstein himself never posited such a model (though others very shortly after him did).

Second, what we find from observation is that the Universe is in fact expanding and accelerating its expansion, and the form of its acceleration appears to match what would be expected from a cosmological constant (though the preferred term nowadays is “dark energy”, it behaves the same way). This was surprising when discovered, because most cosmologists, in the time since Einstein, had come to doubt the existence of the cosmological constant. If this state of affairs continues (and we have no reason to expect that it will not, though there is much we don’t know), then the Universe will _never_ re-contract, nor even slow the acceleration of its expansion.

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**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-reach-the-edge-of-the-universe/668588/82 "2013-09-16T17:10:32Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> You seem to be confused about a number of things.

Drat.

What were we talking about, again?

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**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-reach-the-edge-of-the-universe/668588/83 "2013-09-16T18:15:12Z")

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> [@hotflungwok](#):
>
> What happens? Is there a point where I can go no further, that the Earth stops getting further away? Do I just keep going into void forever? What exactly is ‘the edge of the universe’?

It’s turtles all the way down.

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**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-reach-the-edge-of-the-universe/668588/84 "2013-09-16T18:18:26Z")

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> [@si\_blakely](#):
>
> Eddies in the space-time continuum.

And this is his sofa, is it?

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