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Old 06-08-2009, 08:27 PM
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GeoffW1 (Geoff)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xelasnave View Post
I read it was 160 billion light years and even that was pointed out to be too small...so what is the excepted view...
ANy ideas please... and is there an "outside"?
alex
Hi,

Well, there is a lot of uncertainty it seems. I read that we are fairly certain that it is at least about 93 billion light years across, which is the volume of observable things.

So even though the age of the universe is about 13.7 billion years, the edge of the observable part is 46.5 billion light years away. Boggling.

However space-time beyond that might be infinite, we don't know. The recent discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating has thrown a big spanner in the theory of it all, we don't know just what is responsible.

There is no evidence that the edge of what we can see corresponds to the edge of what exists (if there is any). That 160 billion light year figure was the result of a widely reported theory which is now thought to be incorrect.

I feel like a stunned mullet every time I try to understand it all.

Cheers
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