Hey there and welcome to Life Noggin.
Just the other day, I was exploring my world with Triangle Bob and we found a place my
animator forgot to design.
The end of my world is just a big, scary cliff to nowhere!
But you can float around so it's kinda cool.
It did have me wondering though, what’s at the end of /your/ universe?
If we want to know what’s at the end of the universe, we should start at the beginning.
There are many different ideas for how our universe began, but the most popular one is
the Big Bang Theory.
Nope, guys get out of here!
The Big Bang Theory was first proposed in the 1920’s, saying that the universe once
started out super small.
From its tiny beginnings, the universe stretched and expanded until it became as big as it
is now.
According to NASA, if we looked at the universe one second after the Big Bang, we would most
likely see a 10-billion degree sea of particles, such as neutrons, protons, and electrons.
That’s really hot!
As everything expanded and took up more space, it all cooled down.
Particles grouped together and formed atoms.
These atoms gave birth to stars and galaxies and molecules, and eventually the universe
was filled with all the planets, people, and loveable internet friends you have today!
And that’s not all.
Our universe could still be expanding and stretching, and might do so for a long time.
Maybe forever!
It’s all super cool to think about, but why is the Big Bang the leading theory?
Do we have any proof?
Well, around the same time that the Big Bang Theory was introduced, No guys!
Please get out of here!
I'm not talking about you.
Edwin Hubble made an interesting observation.
He noticed that other galaxies were moving away from us in all directions.
Not only that, but the farther apart galaxies were /from/ us, the faster they would seem
to be moving /away/.
Hubble’s observation was so important because it showed that the universe is still expanding.
If things are moving apart, it stands to reason that they were once closer together.
The discovery of the cosmic microwave background, or CMB for short, also helped give credit
to the Big Bang Theory.
Since the Big Bang says that our early universe was a very hot place that eventually cooled
down, there should be leftover radiation.
Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias were the first to find the radiation while they were building
a radio receiver.
Since then, we’ve learned more about the CMB from missions such as NASA’s Cosmic
Background Explorer and the Wilkinson Anisotropy Probe.
We now know that CMB radiation is not only very cold, close to absolute zero in fact,
but that it's also pretty uniform throughout the universe.
This uniformity is why it makes sense that it all came from one place, like the Big Bang.
So, if the universe /is/ still expanding, what’s at the end of it?
Well, we can’t know for sure right now and there’s a good chance that we never will.
That’s because the universe doesn’t just seem to be expanding, but also getting faster
as it does.
If it doesn’t stop, we’ll probably never be able to find a way to go fast enough to
reach it, since we believe it’s already expanding faster than the speed of light.
Maybe one day somehow we'll find out, but until then me and triangle bob are going to
float in the nothingness.
It's really calming!
Wait a minute...is that my dad?
So what do you think is at the end of the universe?
Let me know in the comment section below!
Curious to know if there are actual parallel universes?
Check out this video!
As always, I’m Blocko and this has been Life Noggin.
Don’t forget to keep on thinking!