UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
How does space never end?
Question Date: 2015-02-08
Answer 1:

This is easier to explain with math, than with a demonstration. Space never ends in the same way the surface of the earth never ends. It's not that the surface of the earth is infinite, but if you keep going far enough you end up in the same place. The visible universe is huge, though, and the whole universe is even bigger. So much so that we will never reach the "edge" where you end up where you started. If you could walk through space in a perfectly straight line, in many billions of years you would end up back at Earth. So space "never ends," but it is finite, like the surface of the earth.


Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use