AT Everyday life a person most often has to deal with finite quantities. Therefore, it is very difficult to visualize an unrestricted infinity. This concept is shrouded in a halo of mystery and unusualness, which is mixed with reverence for the Universe, the boundaries of which are almost impossible to determine.
The spatial infinity of the world belongs to the most complex and controversial scientific problems. Ancient philosophers and astronomers tried to resolve this issue through the simplest logical constructions. To do this, it was enough to assume that it was possible to reach the supposed edge of the universe. But if you stretch out your hand at this moment, then the border moves back a certain distance. This operation can be repeated countless times, which proves the infinity of the universe.
The infinity of the universe is difficult to imagine, but no less difficult is how a limited world could look like. Even for those who are not very advanced in the study of cosmology, in this case, a natural question arises: what is beyond the boundary of the Universe? However, such reasoning, built on common sense and worldly experience, cannot serve as a solid basis for rigorous scientific conclusions.
Modern ideas about the infinity of the universe
Modern scientists, exploring multiple cosmological paradoxes, have come to the conclusion that the existence of a finite universe, in principle, contradicts the laws of physics. The world outside the planet Earth, apparently, has no boundaries either in space or in time. In this sense, infinity suggests that neither the amount of matter contained in the Universe, nor its geometric dimensions can be expressed even by the largest number (“Evolution of the Universe”, I.D. Novikov, 1983).
Even if we take into account the hypothesis that the Universe was formed about 14 billion years ago as a result of the so-called Big Bang, this may well only mean that in those extremely distant times the world went through another stage of natural transformation. In general, the infinite Universe never appeared during the initial push or inexplicable development of some non-material object. The assumption of an infinite Universe puts an end to the hypothesis of the Divine creation of the world.
In 2014, American astronomers published the results of the latest research that confirms the hypothesis of the existence of an infinite and flat universe. With high precision, scientists have measured the distance between galaxies located at a distance of several billion light years from each other. It turned out that these colossal space star clusters are located in circles with a constant radius. The cosmological model constructed by the researchers indirectly proves that the Universe is infinite both in space and in time.
> Does the universe have an end?
How to find the edge of the universe: if space has an ending, what is the exact size of the universe, the study of cosmic microwave background radiation, a description of the infinite space.
We have two roads: the universe has boundaries or there are none. In both cases, there are interesting implications. Let's see if the end of the universe?
So, in a finite universe, there must be a size. You could hear specific numbers more than once and believe in the proposed deception. Astronomers continue to puzzle over this question. But it is incredibly difficult, especially considering how fleeting human life is. However, the obsession is strong and many powerful satellites have been invented. It was even possible to find the relic radiation (the afterglow of the Big Bang).
It was important to get confirmation that the formations of one half of the sky corresponded to the other. But so far no connection has been found. To translate into human language, it is worth noting that we see 13.8 billion light years in any direction (that is, we peer into the past). This is the time it takes for the first visible light to travel from the starting point of everything to us. The expansion increased the distance to 47.5 billion light years, which gives us the size of the universe at 93 billion light years. But these are only the first figures. But maybe 100 billion or a trillion light years. We don't see the full picture. Or maybe it's just infinite and then it makes no sense to look for where the end of the universe is?
If the second option works, then you can come across interesting conclusions.
Let's get started! We have a cubic meter of space. Put your palms together and imagine that inside there are a certain number of particles with a countable number of configurations. Tony Padilla calculated that we will get the number 10 to the 10th power and another to the 70th. This is an unimaginably huge figure that you don't have enough ink and paper to display it.
The number of particles in the observable Universe is 10 80, which is inferior to the first indicator. Now buckle up! In an infinite Universe, if you decide to travel from Earth to a huge distance, then sooner or later you will stumble upon a duplicate of your space. And the deeper, the more there will be.
You may think that there is nothing special here. Just think, one hydrogen pile is similar to another. But the further you go, the more elements fit your world. As a result, you will get to another Earth, where you will find your double! And this is only a small part of the madness available in infinite space (an option where the universe has no end and edge).
We hope that the copy did not shock you too much, as even further you will meet a lot of yourself! And it will be different variations. I immediately recall fantastic films where the double can be with a beard or with a different profession.
So what is there? Perhaps this is an infinite number of repeating observable universes. And we don't need the multiverse to find them. These are double universes inside the infinite.
It is very important to understand if space has an end. While astronomers do not have an answer, but every day they are getting one step closer.
Two fleas are sitting and one asks the other: listen, here we are sitting here, warm, eating to our heart's content, but what do you think - is there life on other dogs?
Here we are, sitting on our dog and talking about "IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER DOGS". The fact is that physics still does not know where the matter from which everything in our universe consists comes from. Theoretical physics considers the theory " big bang” as the most accessible to a general understanding, and in which everything that happens most fully fits, assuming that matter exploded, reaching a maximum density, tending to infinity, together with the same maximum temperature, from one point, the so-called singularity, but no one has yet been able to intelligibly explain how this SOMETHING reached such a state, and what preceded it. We can observe the expansion of the universe, in theory it is proved that, having reached a certain size under the influence of gravity, it will begin to contract and this very singularity will come, but from this we can make the assumption that this has already happened, and, accordingly, it will continue to do so, which says in favor of infinity. And then, where did all the matter come from, which "blew up safely" because it could not come from nowhere, these are the very first and unshakable laws of physics. In order for SOMETHING to explode, it had to come from somewhere. If this law is correct, then this eventually leads us straight to infinity, but if this is not so, then there are some ways to get SOMETHING from NOTHING, and this is a direct road to an overabundance of the mass of matter in our universe, and to prevent its annihilation, that is, self-destruction, and as a result, its transfer to another dimension of space-time. Everything is quite confusing, for simplicity I will say this: no one has solved the eternal question - which came first, the chicken or the egg! And the most interesting thing is where it, this FIRST, came from. This is about the “minus” countdown, but about the “plus”, everything is simple, imagine a library in which all the books of the world are collected and you take a blank sheet and write down on it all the first pages of all the books in this library, then in progression. Roughly speaking N+1. Therefore, I think that the universe is infinite both in space and in time. And then, we know too little about the universe to say something for sure, because even such concepts as “color” are not definite, it all depends on whose eyes we look at a flower, human or, for example, bee. Everything is relative. As one smart guy said: there are two infinite things in the world - the universe and human stupidity. If we can ever understand and explain the first one, then it will not work out with the second one. She is truly INCREDIBLE!
In ancient times, very little was known to man, regarding the knowledge of today, and man strove for new knowledge. Of course, people were also interested in where they live and what is outside their home. After some time, people have devices for observing the night sky. Then a person understands that the world is much larger than he once imagined it and reduced it only to the scale of the planet. After a long study of the cosmos, new knowledge opens up to a person, which leads to an even greater study of the unknown. The person asks the question “Is there end of space? Or is space infinite?
End of space. theories
The very question of the infinity of outer space, of course, is a very interesting question and torments all astronomers and not only astronomers. Many years ago, when the Universe began to be intensively studied, many philosophers tried to answer themselves and the world about the infinity of the cosmos. But then it all boiled down only to logical reasoning, and there was no evidence confirming that the end of the cosmos exists, as well as denying it. Also at that time, people believed and believed that the Earth is the center of the Universe, that all cosmic stars and bodies revolve around the Earth.
Now scientists also cannot give an exhaustive answer to this question, because everything comes down to hypotheses and there is no scientific proof of this or that opinion about the end of space. Even with modern scientific achievements and technologies, a person cannot answer this question. All this because of the well-known speed of light. The speed of light is the main assistant in the study of space, thanks to which a person can look into the sky and receive information. The speed of light is a unique quantity, which is an indefinable barrier. Distances in space are so huge that they do not fit in a person's head and light needs whole years, or even millions of years, to overcome such distances. Therefore, the farther a person looks into space, the farther he looks into the past, because the light from there travels for so long that we see what it was or a cosmic body millions of years ago.
The end of space, the boundaries of the visible
The end of space, of course, exists in the vision of man. There is such a boundary in space beyond which we cannot see anything, because the light from those very distant places has not yet reached our planet. Scientists do not see anything there and, probably, this will not change very soon. The question arises: “Is this border the end of the cosmos?”. It is difficult to answer this question, because nothing is visible, but this does not mean that there is nothing there. Perhaps a parallel universe begins there, or maybe a continuation of the cosmos, which we do not yet see, and there is no end to the cosmos. There is another version that
Just about the complex. Why is the Universe infinite and where to look for aliens?
We are starting a new section “Simply about the complex”, within which we will ask experts in various fields the simplest, sometimes even childishly naive questions about everything in the world. And our interlocutors will endure our importunity, intelligibly and naturally talking about complex things. Today we are talking with Belarusian photographer and astronomer Viktor Malyshchits, well known to our readers for a series of articles on space.
Let's start with the most important. Where did the aliens go and why, despite all our efforts, have we still not found them (and they - us)?
In an attempt to detect intelligent life forms, humanity uses radio signals. But we do not know what kind of communication they use. Maybe the aliens do not know about radio waves or have long abandoned them?
There are other questions as well. In what format should the signal be sent? What areas of space? How to increase the likelihood that the signal is understandable? Many signaling events are PR promotions. For example, in 1974, a radio signal was sent from the Arecibo observatory towards the globular star cluster M13. Someone said, they say, there are 100 thousand stars, at least ten will have aliens! They just keep silent that this cluster is 24 thousand light years away. And do not forget that the probable answer needs the same amount.
Part of Arecibo's message
It is better to try to look for some signals yourself than to send them. However, neither one nor the other has yet yielded any results.
- Space is boundless, the Universe is infinite. How did scientists come to this conclusion?
We assume that our world has a certain structure: there are galaxies, clusters of galaxies, superclusters of galaxies, etc. But on a scale of several hundred million light-years, our world is homogeneous, and, as far as we can see, nothing changes there. There is no indication that the structure of the universe is trying to cluster closer to any center or edge. Based on these observations, it is concluded that, probably, everything is the same in the future.
The trouble is that no matter what telescopes we build, we cannot see the whole world. The maximum that we can see is those objects that are at a distance of 13.7 billion light years from us (the age at which our Universe is estimated). Light has already reached us from them. But after all, something could happen further, it’s just that the light signal did not have time to reach from there.
Thus, there is a border beyond which we cannot break through. But what is behind it, we can only guess, extrapolating the knowledge that we have.
Why did people stop flying to the moon? Indeed, today there are much more opportunities for this than 50 years ago. Maybe conspiracy theories don't lie?
I don't believe in any conspiracy theories. The answer to the question is quite simple: sending a man to the moon is a very, very expensive project. In the 1960s, there was a different geopolitical situation, the US and the USSR actively participated in the space race. It was necessary to catch up and overtake the rival, people wanted this, they were ready to give up material wealth in order to be the first.
Today the society has become more well-fed. Of course, we can now resume flights to the Moon, we can even fly to Mars. The only question is - how much will it cost taxpayers? We want to have Good work, comfortable rest, brand new iPhone and everything else. Are people ready to give it up?
In addition, today's technology has reached such a level that a person is not needed, it is much cheaper to do without him. A person is a heavy piece of meat, in which only the head and hands work normally, and everything else is an extra load, which, in addition to everything else, needs a bunch of life support systems. A small lunar rover with a bunch of sensors would weigh a lot less, it wouldn't need oxygen or water, and it would be a lot cheaper to launch it to the moon than it would be to launch a human.
What color are planets and nebulae really? In the photographs, they are so beautiful and colorful, but when we look at the night sky or into space through a telescope, we do not see this colorful beauty.
The concept of color is very arbitrary. For a person, this is not so much an absolute value as a relative one. How does the human eye work? It constantly adjusts the white balance. Here we are sitting in the office and we see yellow light bulbs, while the sheet of paper under them looks white, and now everything outside the window is somehow blue. Let's go outside during the day, and everything will seem white there. This is because our eyes are constantly adjusting so that the background light is grayish. Therefore, it is very difficult to talk about color during the day, a lot depends on the background lighting. But at night, when there is no background lighting, our eyes set the white balance to a specific value.
Remember that the eye's photoreceptors include cones and rods? It is the latter that are responsible for night vision, and they do not recognize colors in low light. Therefore, in a telescope, we see the nebula as a kind of diffuse, colorless haze. But for the camera there is no difference, low light or strong light, it always captures the color.
Do you know what is the most popular color among nebulae? Pink! Nebulae are mostly made up of hydrogen, which glows red, slightly blue, and purple when exposed to nearby stars, resulting in a pink color.
So the cosmos is colored, we just don't see these colors. We can only distinguish the colors of the most bright stars and planets. Everyone, for example, sees that Mars is not green, but orange, Jupiter is yellowish, and Venus is white. When processing images, they try to fit them to these colors. Although there are no strict rules. Often, through telescopes or spacecraft, the planet is photographed in slightly different ranges, and not in standard RGB. Therefore, the colors in the pictures may not always be natural.
Telescope "Hubble"
The Rosette Nebula in the Hubble Palette
In general, with space frames there are two options. According to the first, the objects are trying to show as realistic as possible, they are shot in RGB, the nebulae are pinkish, the stars are of a normal color. As a second example, one can cite such a technique as the “Hubble palette” (the name arose due to the fact that photographs from this particular telescope were first processed in this way). Elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur and some others glow only in certain ranges of the spectrum. There are special filters that can show, for example, only hydrogen or only sulfur. You put a filter - only the structure of hydrogen in the nebula is fixed, you put another one - you see only oxygen. For an astronomer, this is important, because you can trace the distribution of different chemical elements. But how to show all this to people? Then, purely conditionally, they decide to color hydrogen in green, sulfur in red, and oxygen in blue. It turns out a beautiful and at the same time informative picture, which, however, has little in common with the original.
Why are large asteroids discovered so late? After all, often they learn about them only when they are already as close as possible to the Earth.
Let's see how asteroids are generally detected. The same part of the starry sky is photographed several times. If some "asterisk" moves, then it is an asteroid or something like that. Next, you need to check the bases, calculate the orbit and see if the object will collide with the planet.
The problem is that an asteroid dangerous for the Earth is just a boulder with a diameter of a couple of tens of meters. It is very difficult to see a 20-30-meter block in space. Plus, they're almost black.
I would say that, on the contrary, we should be proud that people learned to detect asteroids so early. Previously, even the most terrible of them were discovered only after they flew by.
- Isn't there a lot of space debris in orbit? How dangerous is he?
Lot! And the biggest problem is that we can't do anything with it yet. You can only try not to throw anything into space or throw it out so that it burns up in the atmosphere. In low orbits, where there are most satellites, including broken ones, earth atmosphere slightly present and gradually slows down the movement of debris. It eventually falls to Earth and burns up in the atmosphere.
What to do with higher orbits? If the amount of debris reaches a critical value, then an avalanche-like formation of debris will begin. Imagine that some particle collides with a satellite at an incredible speed - it will also scatter into hundreds of blanks that will collide with other particles, etc. As a result, the planet will be surrounded by a cocoon of debris, and space will become unsuitable for research. Fortunately, we are still far from this critical value.
- Where do people get hysteria about the planet Nibiru? Have you, as an experienced astronomer, seen it?
People love to believe in conspiracy theories. This is our psychology, we want to believe in the unreal. No one has really seen this planet, astronomers do not take it seriously.
Why didn't they come up with artificial gravity? She's in all science fiction films!
Physics has not yet been discovered! Theoretically, of course, it is possible to build a huge ring in space that spins at a certain speed. Then, due to the centrifugal force, gravity can be obtained. But all this is more fantasy than reality. So far, it is easier to teach people to work in zero gravity.