Voyager Space Probe Reaches Edge of Solar System: Does the Universe Have an Edge?

by Fef Posted 2012/06/15 22:49:21

Related Topics: Space, solar system, Universe, Record

47 votes
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	Universe has an edge	8 votes	17%
	Universe has no edge	18 votes	38%
	Hmm... not sure	21 votes	45%

The Voyager 1 space probe has reached the edge of the solar system, extending its record for being the most distant man-made object in space.

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Yosyp 2012/06/15 22:58:35

Hmm... not sure

+3
but the voyager 1 is an amazing space craft
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Nika 2012/07/15 17:23:02

Universe has no edge

I used to ponder this all the time when I was little. I theorized that how can it have an end? Do you run into a wall? Than there must be something on the other side. You can't just run out of space. Would you pass into another universe? I use to think what it would be like if we were in like a snowglobe of an even bigger universe. Yeah I was an odd kid.

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P. Sturm 2012/06/29 00:46:49

Hmm... not sure

It appears to. The cosmic microwave background radiation is relic from the big bang,and something is reflecting it back to us. The patterns on it seem to indicate that it borders other realities in the multiverse. But we're looking at something 13.7 billion light years away and trying to extract meaningful data. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe survey helped, but we really need the next generation microwave telescope in space before we get any farther.

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flyingseaturtle BN 2012/06/21 03:42:04

Hmm... not sure

I don't know ;-)

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Striker 2012/06/17 04:19:51

Hmm... not sure

Is there an end to the Universe? And if so, what's beyond that?

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ZB 2012/06/17 03:06:24

Hmm... not sure

Theoretically, no it doesn't. Will we ever know for sure? Probably not.

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rand 2012/06/16 21:10:31

Hmm... not sure

+1
Do you mean the universe in which we reside or a bigger universe than encompasses ours or the multiverses intertwined with ours by gravity or... I don't see how we can ever really know since it's beyond our potential for detection.

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Cleaver62 2012/06/16 20:43:08

Universe has an edge

Sure it does. It runs parallel to the edge of the earth but perpendicular to the 4 corners of the globe.

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Mark 2012/06/16 20:12:06

Universe has no edge

And we know Voyager will be back.

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Jen 2012/06/16 17:11:03

Hmm... not sure

The universe is immeasurable, so it PROBABLY does not have an edge. The aliens in the next solar system might know the correct answer.
: +). : +).
: +)

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Cleaver62 to Jen 2012/06/16 20:44:08

But if they tell you they will have to kill you. Hell, they mey kill you before you ever find out.

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TerryAgee 2012/06/16 16:00:57

Hmm... not sure

Only time will tell my friend.

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exsecrare to TerryAgee 2012/06/17 07:25:50

Time is a creation of the observer.

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Claybern 2012/06/16 14:42:48

Hmm... not sure

No one knows for sure.

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classic 2012/06/16 14:38:10

Hmm... not sure

+2
How do they know it is the edge... Is there a sign there?

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Racefish 2012/06/16 14:35:13

Hmm... not sure

How are we defining "universe"? is it the total mass of what makes up the stars, etc.? If that is the case, it does have an edge. If we consider that this total mass is still expanding, we have no idea what it's expanding into so the answer would be no.

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U Mad Bro? 2012/06/16 13:07:23

Universe has no edge

Even if it did, Voyager wouldn't make it. Its only expected to last until 2025.

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exsecrare to U Mad Bro? 2012/06/17 07:27:31 (edited)

It's only expected to function until 2025... Theoretically, if it didn't collide with something or get captured by the gravitational pull of some celestial body along the way, it is perfectly capable of reaching the edge of the universe.

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U Mad Bro? to exsecrare 2012/06/17 14:23:18

Which means there is no way to know where it will be in 14 years.

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norman 2012/06/16 13:00:06

Hmm... not sure

+1
If the String Theorists' models are correct, the universe has an edge but also a near-infinite set of parallel universes as neighbors.

But! (and this is a big "But!") Since 73% of the universe is made up of Dark Matter and 23% is made up of Dark Energy - leaving only 4% that we can actually observe - most of our theories about the nature of the universe could easily turn out to be just "a shot in the Dark."

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Wolfman 2012/06/16 08:05:08

Universe has no edge

The universe has the same edge that time does.

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GUY LAKEMAN 2012/06/16 07:47:40

Universe has no edge

I see no reason for the universe to have an edge or not ... so no edge is a logical freedom ... only those forced into insecure feelings by religious dogma would think otherwise
obviously there are limits to what we are able to observe being the very limited results of evolution and the result of a large number of limited lifetime stellar objects now on a second cycle within the existence of this universe ... this stars existence of 5 billion years, in a universe 15 billion years giver or take a billion years or so :)

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exsecrare to GUY LAK... 2012/06/17 07:29:35 (edited)

what does religion have to do with the belief in whether or not the universe has an edge? I'm fairly certain most modern science says it does.

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MOMMA THOMAS 2012/06/16 04:15:59

Universe has no edge

+1
I BELIEVE THERE MAY NOT BE....

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caius madison 2012/06/16 01:55:35

Universe has no edge

Shamone! We all know that space isn't so.e giant cube ready to be explored to it's edge. Impossible is what I say.

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Rogue_Loner 2012/06/16 01:38:43
Dagon 2012/06/16 00:39:46
Vijay Pawar 2012/06/16 00:34:13

Hmm... not sure

Let's hope for the best, as we just can do that,let it return for us to know from NASA.

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Foxhound BN0 2012/06/16 00:25:33

Universe has no edge

No. The universe is eternal in time and space.

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Kiosk Kid 2012/06/15 23:50:29 (edited)

Universe has an edge

The solar system has an edge. It is where the sun doesn’t have any affect on an object or other forces have just as much an affect.

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Wolfman to Kiosk Kid 2012/06/16 08:08:45

+1
Gravitional pull is a function of 1/r^2. There is no edge to influence.

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Kiosk Kid to Wolfman 2012/06/16 14:37:36

+1
I probably should have said other forces start having an effect. I made an error when I said the sun doesn't have any affect.

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Wolfman to Kiosk Kid 2012/06/17 04:33:12

+1
It does get to the point where the effect of gravity is negligible and immeasurable, but not a hard edge.

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Kiosk Kid to Wolfman 2012/06/17 12:23:46

+1
That is what I meant with my first statement, I just didn't express it as well as you did.

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Wolfman to Kiosk Kid 2012/06/17 16:14:15

+1
Then we agree.

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Dave Sawyer ♥ Child of God ♥ 2012/06/15 23:24:32

Hmm... not sure

+1
Does the Solar System even have an edge, or did someone just arbitrarily decide a certain distance was the end of the Solar System?

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Wolfman to Dave Sa... 2012/06/16 08:09:05

+1
No edge.

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ZB to Dave Sa... 2012/06/17 03:08:12

The Oort Cloud is considered to be the edge of the solar system. Is it actually? Probably not. But its a reference for science to work from.

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Dave Sa... to ZB 2012/06/17 04:29:06

We can't even see the Oort cloud.

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ZB to Dave Sa... 2012/06/18 07:33:49

Tell that to the scientists that use that reference.

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Dave Sa... to ZB 2012/06/18 14:13:01

They already know that.

"The Oort cloud is a hypothesized spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly 50,000 AU, or nearly a light-year, from the Sun. This places the cloud at nearly a quarter of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. The Kuiper belt and the scattered disc, the other two reservoirs of trans-Neptunian objects, are less than one thousandth of the Oort cloud's distance. The outer limit of the Oort cloud defines the cosmographical boundary of the Solar System and the region of the Sun's gravitational dominance."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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