• Question: Do you think that there is anything outside of the universe?

    Asked by TeamAtom2016 to Alice, Bose, Christian, Emma, Steve on 17 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Benjamin Bose

      Benjamin Bose answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      So when we say universe, we usually mean observable universe, i.e. the part of the universe we can see. Beyond that, there is a lot of uncertainty. The entire universe could be infinite or even smaller (yes smaller!) than the observable one.

      To imagine it being smaller, imagine the universe being round like Earth (but much smaller than Earth) and you looking at something far away could just be an image of something much closer to you.

      Outside the entire universe, well there are theories which say our universe is actually just a piece of a higher dimensional reality, and like ants on a wire we can only move forward or backwards but never off the wire into this new dimension.

      Outside higher dimensions? Well, that’s pushing further into the realm of imagination and is one of the best things about science -tying in your imagination with reality 😀

    • Photo: Emma Dean

      Emma Dean answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      There could be. There might be many universes very similar to our own, but are slightly different in some way (e.g. you might have different coloured hair). There could be lots of different types of universes very different to ours. The laws of physics might be different. They might not have gravity, or gravity works by attraction and repulsion. There are as many different possibilities that you can think of and more.

      Do you find it really strange to imagine what could be outside our universe? I certainly do. I find it harder to imagine that nothing exists outside our universe.

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