Let’s answer these questions that cause a lot of confusion: let’s discover the Universe by flying billions of light years away!
If the Universe is defined as everything that exists, then asking what is outside represents a strong contradiction: the outside simply does not exist. If instead we talk about thethat sphere delimited by the cosmic background radiation, then it makes sense to say what lies beyond this impenetrable space-time barrier, but we will probably never find out, simply because no information comes from those regions.
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Beyond our observational boundary
Cosmologists, however, think that the Universe extends well beyond our observational boundary and that it has the same properties as the segment we can observe. On the other hand, one of the principles on which all physics and cosmology is based states that we do not represent a preferred observation point and that therefore the Universe accessible to us is simply any part of the total Universe, for which the same physical laws and distributions apply . If this were not the case, astronomical science would have to be rewritten from scratch, but fortunately all observations confirm these principles. Feeling in a special place, perhaps at the center of the Universe, it is only a mental mechanism of this species called human beings.
The importance of Edwin Hubble
It has always accompanied us, since the ancient Ptolemaic theory stated that the Earth was the center of the cosmos. Then it was thought that the Sun was, then the Solar System within the Galaxy, then our Galaxy. When Edwin Hubble discovered that the Milky Way was only one of billions of galaxies, scientists understood that it is not a good approach to let anthropocentric sentiment prevail in the study of the Universe, simply because for the cosmos we are nothing more than insignificant values of some equations that have made sentient life possible. But there are so many equations and possible values that not even the vainest person in the world can now believe that the Universe was built around human beings.
Quite another matter, however, to ask what was before the Big Bang
Even in this case, from a strictly logical point of view, the question may not make much sense, because time, this time, was born with the Big Bang, just like space. If there is neither time nor space, neither does the concept of before or after exist. So before the Big Bang there was no before! Some scientists, however, suspect that this Universe, precisely because our observation point in space and time is not privileged, is actually one of the infinite ones that has developed since the Big Bang. There could be infinite other universes developing at the same time, or this same Universe is recreated infinite times starting from the Big Bang. This last theory, fascinating because it directly recalls the eternal return of the philosopher Nietzsche, however at the moment seems to be called into question by the discovery of the acceleration of expansion. To recreate a new In fact, the current Universe will sooner or later have to stop expanding and start contracting, until it concentrates in one point and gives rise to a new cycle. The puzzle to be put together is still so big, however, that we certainly cannot be sure that we have understood the global plan starting from the small portions that we have started to put together, therefore, in fact, all theories are still possible.
For further information, we recommend Daniele Gasparri’s book:
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