What is the Size of the Universe? | Prise1.com in English

What is the Size of the Universe?

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Added on Monday 08 March 2010 04:05:47
by tdarnell
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When I first made the Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken video, there has been a consistent avalanche of comments stating that there is no way the universe can be this large. Figuring out the size of the universe isn't as simple as just multiplying the distance light travels in one year by the age of the universe.

We need to account for the expansion.

Astronomers have recently estimated a lower limit to the size of the universe to be roughly 78 billion light years in diameter. In this video I try to explain how that's possible.

For the more technically inclined, here's a link to the scientific paper this vid is based on:
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310233

All music used:

Leonard J. Paul - The Corporation Soundtrack:
http://www.archive.org/details/kpu101

iambic2 - under these stars, we'll sleep again:
http://www.archive.org/details/laridae031

Kevin MacLeod - Truth of the Legend
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?keywords=choir&Search=Search

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Comment(s)

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jaykulls

Surely that size would only be the true size of the visible univierse?
Sunday 05 February 2012 06:50:36
jkang24

We just may be in the best part of the Universe... Mother Earth
Friday 27 January 2012 04:27:04
sniped101

@McSmooth5150 how do we know the age of the universe?
Thursday 26 January 2012 20:26:08
McSmooth5150

@sniped101 it apears you have some basic facts mixed up. No worries though if you just read say, a brief history of time or fabric of the cosmos you will see that we know for certain the age of the universe but we believe that the size of the universe is infinite. We are talking here about the size of our cosmic horizon not the size of the entire universe, which is easy to mix up. One of the most basic yet not understood subject is size length of our cosmic horizon. Good luck on your studies!
Thursday 26 January 2012 19:45:02
sniped101

@McSmooth5150 and you would be wrong because you only have the information of what you can see. You can't see what was seen 13 billion years before you were born because the universe is expanding everything faster than the speed of light. This is why i believe the universe is much older than we could ever imagine.. Because we can only SEE back to 13.7 billion years... at 13.71 billion years, we dont know because we cant se
Wednesday 25 January 2012 14:03:16
sniped101

@McSmooth5150 but if the observable universe is 13.7 billion years ago, How do we find out how big the ACTUAL universe is? Answer? We can't because we can't see anything past 13.7 billion years because it fades away. This is why if you were a scientist in the future on a distant galaxy born 13 billion years from now, you would only see your galaxy and you would stare at an empty universe, thinking you were the only thing.
Wednesday 25 January 2012 14:00:54
Lennyoracle

@tdarnell When referring to the expansion of the universe you keep implying that new spacetime is created "in between" objects in space, resulting in their growing relative distances. Is this just to help illustrate a point? Because in your road analogy you imply the stretching of the existing road (taken: the expansion of existing spacetime). Which do you believe?
Thursday 19 January 2012 17:56:38
maxzamoraj

So, they universe expands the same as Minecraft?? It creates more space as you travel? Wow, the secrets of the universe... Y U HAZ 2 B SO COMPLEX!!!!?
Tuesday 17 January 2012 21:12:47
GYROMIGHT1

@ScrubifyHD I think everyone knows there are multiple universes...
Sunday 15 January 2012 20:14:47
FordPrefect23

@McSmooth5150 I can't help but feel you're wasting your time, you may well be the one trying to play chess with a pigeon as the old analogy goes. You get what you're saying, I do, anyone who'd educated does, but blind faith leads to further blindness in order to protect that faith from reality. There is little point in trying to convince much of the opposing camp because they refuse to listen to the science, you have to wait for them to catch on in their own time.
Saturday 14 January 2012 20:35:49
adamdyerseve

the speed of light is 300,000 km per second (not 300,000 meters per second as suggested in the clip)!
Wednesday 11 January 2012 15:06:19
Ipowne3g

@mknomad5 HAHAH :D have you ever read a book you brainwashed christian
Tuesday 27 December 2011 06:14:01
nannynicky4life

this is old news. galaxies have been found to be 120 billion light years away. meaning that is how big the universe might be.
Tuesday 20 December 2011 12:37:59
yomamallama1022

@TheQedqubit there is no center of the universe. spacetime expands universally everywhere in the universe, so there cant be a center
Saturday 17 December 2011 22:42:37
dunnono00

@flyingjerry1 Heck, maybe you just stop existing because space and time just aren't there anymore. Like, the atoms in your body just disperse once you're past that boundary. No light, so you stop seeing, no sound, so you stop hearing, nothing to feel, and your brain stops working. Ok, wildly speculative, but once you go beyond the universe, it's like you go beyond existence.
Sunday 11 December 2011 15:21:57
TheMakyato

@McSmooth5150 the universe is only the space where matter exist!
Thursday 08 December 2011 16:35:14
JheakrynaKyAlur

what has the fact of being christian, muslim, pink or yellow, have to with the fact that the universe is as it is? ;D
Tuesday 06 December 2011 06:20:02
ScrubifyHD

believe it our not there are millions of universes....yea just think about and how muc h life there is out there.........
Saturday 03 December 2011 17:31:09
flyingjerry1

But what if there is another universe in another dimension, that we cant even see? there must be. once you go past the 79 billion light years that this universe stretches across, what is there? Just a wall or something? A spot where you constantly fall until you die from some un-explained reason? another dimension?
Tuesday 29 November 2011 18:41:36
skillfulblade

omg you fuckin noobs. this is only the observable universe. the observable universe is as big to the physical universe as an atom is to the observable universe!
Friday 25 November 2011 23:21:54
headshotFAIL

ok so the universe is a big glitch :D randoms!!!
Tuesday 22 November 2011 14:08:39
jeffandjoesports

All though I am a Christian, This guy makes REALLY interesting videos =D
Friday 18 November 2011 17:35:57
MrGoggy13

@mrrn100 oh srry... for some reason I tought you ment m/s...
Tuesday 15 November 2011 14:36:07
mrrn100

@MrGoggy13 Check your data before replying MrGoggy13 The speed of light is ~300.000 KILOMETERS per second. This is right and you are wrong, check the data in any Science site with the speed of light. This is basic stuff.
Monday 14 November 2011 08:14:41