• Question: u know how the unvierse is expanding?what is it expanding into?

    Asked by anon-245463 to Sam, Samantha, Nicol, Lori-Ann, Liam, David on 10 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Sam Frampton

      Sam Frampton answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      It’s a hard question to answer! We can’t see the ‘edge’ of the universe, and we don’t think that an ‘edge’ actually exists! So when we say that the universe is expanding, we mean that everything in the universe is slowly moving away from each other, but there is nothing else for the universe to expand into….

      ….it’s still confusing for me!

    • Photo: Lori-Ann Foley

      Lori-Ann Foley answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      That’s a big question and the answer is quite philosophical! Space is space and it just expands. 🙂

    • Photo: Samantha Faircloth

      Samantha Faircloth answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      Hi William, this a great question and one that Stephen Hawkins would have enjoyed answering! Nothing is added to the universe so things just move away from each other. If you blow up a party balloon, it starts small and expands (until it goes bang!) into something bigger…but no material has been added to it! That’s how expansion in space works!

    • Photo: David Sobral

      David Sobral answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      Space-time is being created all the time, which is probably a better way to think about it either than expanding. Space is only created in regions where there is no gravitational pull, essentially in large spaces between galaxies that are so far away that they do not feel each other’s pull.

      This is great because it means that space-time is not being created within out bodies or in the solar-system – otherwise we would be expanding all the time!

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