[kosh]

-There appears to be too much mass-

Thanks, i didn't know that the reason for the expansion is because there it a "little" too much matter.

In fact, expansion of the universe slowed for a time, probably once the original momentum from the big bang dissipated, and gravity took hold, then accelerated again, this must mean that matter is being produced / converted somehow and that is why this is happening. Dark matter fills a large portion of our universe (so the theory goes) i'm aware of that too.

The speed of light restriction is a special relativistic "law" governing the movement of matter through space. It has nothing to do with the expansion of space itself, which is basically the geomentry of space as described by General Relativity

Thanks for the lesson, but it's actually not what I meant, my fault I suppose... I acutally understand Relativity theory quite well.

My point was in support of one of your earlier statements in a way,

Think of it as one laying down the rules within the bubble, the other laying down the rules of the bubble

Is this not Special relativity? The speed of matter rule WITHIN the bubble?

Also (while i'm going on about it),
I disagree that beyond the universe is a philosophical question...
My assumption that the universe is "somewhere" is no more right or wrong than your assumption that the universe is "infinite". You just finished talking about the Hubble constant and not being able to see behind it, so how do you know that the universe is infinite? So you don't belive in the "Big Bang"? After this expolosion (which originated somewhere), the universe got bigger, then bigger, and bigger still until... It suddenly had no boundry and became infinte? Maybe I should continue to eat more junk food until I get so big that I become infinite too.

If there is no boundry, then what we are really taking about is the "Distribution of matter within an infinite universe", not expansion, which is what everyone is referring to. If there was too much matter in the universe to begin with then it would have continued to expand exponentially and would not have stopped to form stars and planets, Therefore it cannot be "infinite". In fact, it WAS pretty much perfect, that is why we are here discussing it. Something is changing, that is the issue, and if the "boundries" of the universe are not expanding then the cosmos is becoming denser. Is there any evidence that it is becoming denser? I don't think so. So, the universe is getting bigger.

So let's remove the previously mentioned SOMETHING that we apparently have no need for, and watch as the universe becomes denser, and finally collapses in on itself under the force of gravity all the while, counting the amount of atoms contained within it. Not that we''' be here to see it!