What Exactly Is The Universe Expanding Into?

Even as you read these lines, the universe is expanding at a rapid pace. You are not in the same place as you were when you started reading this article. From this perspective, the workings of the universe are truly fascinating.

Of course, this question leads us to the following question: What is the universe with so many planets, stars and galaxies expanding into? After all, everything we see or know should expand into something else, right? It is not so easy to answer the question when it comes to the universe.

What is the universe expanding into?

It is really difficult to answer this question, because we are talking about a question that our knowledge is difficult to answer. But of course, science has an answer to that. If we give this answer in the shortest way, we conclude that the universe does not actually expand into anything.

The galaxies in the universe are actually extremely static. However, as time passes, the distances between galaxies increase. What is moving at this point is not actually the galaxies. The universe stretches, causing the existing space to open more. This shows that galaxies are moving away from each other in our 3D perspective. Maybe the outside of the universe really does exist, but we need to go outside the 3rd dimension to observe it.

Imagine the universe as a constantly inflating balloon.

If we imagine the universe as a balloon, we will see that all the stars and galaxy clusters in it are points on this inflating balloon. As the balloon inflates, these points move away from each other. What actually misleads people here lies in the use of the term “expansion” for objects to move away. In fact, the universe is not fully expanding. Instead, it flexes like a balloon.

According to this definition, the universe does not need to expand into anything. The universe continues to stretch as a whole. However, we know that this answer also raises other questions and does not give a complete answer.

As eyes inside the universe, we cannot see outside the universe.

If we assume the overall size of the universe to be infinite in the beginning, we can say that it is infinitely large even if it stretches, but things can change if the universe has a finite size.

If the observable universe has a finite dimension, it may be correct to think that there is something “outside the universe”. Unfortunately, we’re running out of answers at this point. It is impossible for us to observe anything outside the universe we live in. Because the laws we use apply to our universe. If there is something other than that, we cannot answer it with our own science.

Space is not just a vacuum.

We need to see the space, which performs movements such as bending and stretching, as a much more complex place. As we mentioned in the content we wrote about where the Big Bang started, in fact, everything started at a single point. The size at that first point was the entire universe, and the size that is now billions of light years away is likewise the entire universe. Our current science shows us that the universe does not necessarily have to expand into something, but in the future we may be able to observe outside the universe.

Sources: Discovery, The Guardian, Ask an Astronomer