# Where is the end of the Universe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 14, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186 "2013-08-14T03:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/21 "2013-08-14T17:32:49Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] XT, the simplest model consistent with the evidence we have is that the Universe will have neither a Rip nor a Crunch, but just a whimper: Atoms (and planets, stars, and galaxies) will stay intact, but everything will just get cooler and cooler, and the available energy more and more dilute, until everything interesting just sort of fades away. That said, there’s enough we don’t know about the Dark Energy that a Rip or a Crunch is either one plausible (the former a bit more so than the latter). [/QUOTE] To paraphrase: Damnit, Jim, I’m a network engineer not a cosmologist! 😉 Thanks for the explanation…I have a very Science Channel view on current science wrt cosmology. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/22 "2013-08-14T18:37:57Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The universe might be finite – must be, if physicists think they can estimate its total mass – but, the surface of a sphere is finite; that doesn’t mean you’ll ever find the edge. Still, you can have[infinite surface area with finite volume](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel's_Horn). ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/23 "2013-08-19T12:04:38Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I don’t know about now, but I seem to recall that in the early universe space expanded at many times the speed of light. I don’t know how ‘scientists’ could or would measure the current rate of expansion, but the various galaxies are moving away from each other at less than the speed of light but will one day (a few hundred billion years from now I suppose) be invisible to our galaxy and vice versa. > > ETA: [This](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3oj1YKIeag) guy says it might be. Another article I read states that Andromeda is due to collide with our galaxy in the reasonably near future, about 1 billion years hence. Galactic size being what it is, very few stars or clusters will actually experience the impact violently. Another prediction is that 5 billion years from now, the sky will give us no evidence of any other galaxy but our own Andromeda/MilkyWay hybrid. Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that we live in a time when millions of galaxies are still observable. We are not cursed with astronomical “white flight.” Or blue flight. Or yellow flight. ---
**Author:** ![David\_H\_Singanas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@David\_H\_Singanas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_H_Singanas)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/24 "2013-08-19T12:19:52Z")
Czarcasm, Two things. I don’t bother with info source cites in reply posts. Secondly I don’t save source materials (newspaper and magazine clippings) except those which deal with Texas history or my own medical issues. Your best bet is to read science pubs and especially astronomy periodicals, all of which are available at your central library or nearby college library. If you want SD posters to do research (cite sources) for you, beware of pay-pal and other billing agencies. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/25 "2013-08-19T12:25:30Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > Perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that we live in a time when millions of galaxies are still observable. We are not cursed with astronomical “white flight.” Or blue flight. Or yellow flight. Yes. The Universe is currently having a bit of a wild and crazy adolescence, but once it reaches adulthood and middle age, this will get pretty damned boring. Finally, there will be nothing left but a bit of radiation and some infinite sadness. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/26 "2013-08-19T19:13:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That said, there’s enough we don’t know about the Dark Energy that a Rip or a Crunch is either one plausible (the former a bit more so than the latter). A Crunch would be when the universe stops expanding, and collapses back in on itself, right? What’s a Rip? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/27 "2013-08-19T19:17:15Z")
[This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip): > [@](#): > > The Big Rip is a cosmological hypothesis first published in 2003, about the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, is progressively torn apart by the expansion of the universe at a certain time in the future. According to the hypothesis, the scale factor of the universe and with it all distances in the universe become infinite at a finite time in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/28 "2013-08-19T20:45:03Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > Czarcasm, > > Two things. I don’t bother with info source cites in reply posts. Secondly I don’t > save source materials (newspaper and magazine clippings) except those which deal > with Texas history or my own medical issues. Your best bet is to read science pubs > and especially astronomy periodicals, all of which are available at your central library > or nearby college library. If you want SD posters to do research (cite sources) for you, > beware of pay-pal and other billing agencies. If you would like your comments to be taken seriously on the SDMB, your best bet is to adapt to the board, rather than attempt to force all of us to adapt to you. Your decision. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/29 "2013-08-19T22:09:26Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > Czarcasm, > > Two things. I don’t bother with info source cites in reply posts. Secondly I don’t > save source materials (newspaper and magazine clippings) except those which deal > with Texas history or my own medical issues. Your best bet is to read science pubs > and especially astronomy periodicals, all of which are available at your central library > or nearby college library. If you want SD posters to do research (cite sources) for you, > beware of pay-pal and other billing agencies. Maybe. But, with about 30 seconds of Googling, you could find a source. I will echo **Frank** ’s point about the culture on this Board. In GQ and GD especially, cites are often the _sine qua non_ of having your point taken seriously. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Consensus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Consensus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Consensus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/30 "2013-08-19T22:35:55Z")
If technically we can get there, I’d say : Where we can no longer observe it (yet?) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/31 "2013-08-19T22:45:02Z")
Wasn’t there a Beegees song “My Dog and Me at The End of the Universe”? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/32 "2013-08-19T23:03:57Z")
> [@David\_H\_Singanas](#): > > Czarcasm, > > Two things. I don’t bother with info source cites in reply posts. Secondly I don’t > save source materials (newspaper and magazine clippings) except those which deal > with Texas history or my own medical issues. Your best bet is to read science pubs > and especially astronomy periodicals, all of which are available at your central library > or nearby college library. If you want SD posters to do research (cite sources) for you, > beware of pay-pal and other billing agencies. If you want us to take you seriously, you’ll do your own research and provide your own cites for the claims you make. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/33 "2013-08-19T23:29:48Z")
By the way, does anyone happen to know where the _beginning_ of the universe is? I’d hate to take off in one direction and find out I went the long way around when I get to the end. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186/34 "2013-08-20T11:54:35Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I may be confusing the radio show with the books or TV series or movie, but I thought I remembered a messiah showing up right before the universe ends. Anyway, it definitely wasn’t then end-as-in-location, since it turned out they were still on Magrathea, right? That’s how they found Marvin again: [QUOTE=Douglas Adams] ARTHUR: Ahhh! You mean we’ve travelled in time, but not in space! ZAPHOD: Listen you semi-evolved simian, go climb a tree, won’t you! ARTHUR: Oh go and bang your heads together, four eyes! GARKBIT: No, no, your monkey has got it right sir. ARTHUR: Who are you calling a monkey?! GARKBIT: You jumped forward in time many millions of years, while retaining the same position in space. Your friend has been waiting for you in the mean time. [/QUOTE] > [@RitterSport](#): > > Anyway, **Czarcasm** is right in that the messiah appears and then the universe ends. > > So, is this thread headed to the Cafe? [The Great Prophet Zarquon](http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Zarquon) … [QUOTE=Douglas Adams] “Er…” [Zarquon] said, “hello. Er, look, I’m sorry I’m a bit late. I’ve had the most ghastly time, all sorts of things cropping up at the last moment.” He seemed nervous of the expectant awed hush. He cleared his throat. “Er, how are we for time?” he said, “have I just got a min—” And so the Universe ended. [/QUOTE] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-end-of-the-universe/666186.md?page=1)