Could there be multiple big bangs?

A related theory holds that the Big Bang wasn’t the beginning of everything, but rather a moment in time when the universe switched from a period of contraction to a period of expansion. This “Big Bounce” notion suggests that there could be infinite Big Bangs as the universe expands, contracts and expands again.

How many possible alternate universes are there?

One obvious question that arises, then, is exactly how many of these parallel universes might there be. In a new study, Stanford physicists Andrei Linde and Vitaly Vanchurin have calculated the number of all possible universes, coming up with an answer of 10^10^16.

How can the universe be infinite or finite?

No. We do not know whether the Universe is finite or not. To give you an example, imagine the geometry of the Universe in two dimensions as a plane. It is flat, and a plane is normally infinite.

Is a parallel universe possible?

Brian Greene: A Physicist Explains ‘The Hidden Reality’ Of Parallel Universes It is possible that there are many other universes that exist parallel to our universe. Theoretical physicist Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, explains how that’s possible in the new book, The Hidden Reality.

Is the universe infinitely large?

No one knows if the universe is infinitely large, or even if ours is the only universe that exists. And other parts of the universe, very far away, might be quite different from the universe closer to home. Future NASA missions will continue to search for clues to the ultimate size and scale of our cosmic home.

What do we know about the universe?

The Universe is a vast, seemingly unending marvel of existence. Over the past century, we’ve learned that the Universe stretches out beyond the billions of stars in our Milky Way, out across tens of billions of light years, containing close to a trillion galaxies all told. Image credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team.

Why is the universe getting bigger and bigger?

The more distant Universe is less clumpy and more uniform, having had less time to form larger, more complicated structures that require more time for gravity’s effects to take place. The early, distant Universe was also hotter. The expanding Universe causes all the light that travels through the Universe to stretch in wavelength.

Does the universe expand and gravitate?

(SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY) The Universe is cold and clumpy today, but it’s also expanding and gravitating. When we look to greater and greater distances, we see things as they were not only far away, but also back in time, owing to the finite speed of light.