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Ask Ethan: Could the Universe be infinite?
Perhaps the limits of what we can observe aren’t just artificial; perhaps there are no limits to what’s out there at all.
“Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.” -Frederick S. Perls, quoting Einstein
13.8 billion years ago, the Universe began with the hot Big Bang. It’s been expanding and cooling ever since, up through and including the present day. From our point-of-view, we can observe it for some 46 billion light years in all directions, thanks to the speed of light and the expansion of space. Although it’s a huge distance, it’s finite. But that’s just the part we can see. What lies beyond that, and is that possibly infinite? Adam Stephens wants to know:
[W]hat are your thoughts on the universe being infinite or even existence being so? I’ve been told by many cosmologists that an infinite universe or existence hasn’t been materially proven. How can such be empirically proven anyway?
First off, what we see tells us more than those 46 billion light years directly reveals to us.
