You are here:

Astrophysics/Infinity

Advertisement

Expert: - 12/1/2008


Question
All my life I have read or heard that space/time is infinite.  Since I can't fathom the idea, I just leave it alone, but am still curious enough to ask the question now.  If this is standard belief in science, is there any explanation that can satisfy the counter-intuitive feeling that there must be an end and a start?  Or is this one of those questions that is taken on faith?

Answer
This is an unanswered question in science, depending greatly on the curvature of spacetime itself and observations implicating that the expansion of space itself in the universe is accelerating.  That is the current understanding of science, we revise it as we see necessary (once upon a time science held that the Earth was flat), but we expand out understanding of this subject every day.  So I say to answer you, stay tuned...

Astrophysics

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

Steve Nelson

Expertise

Fusion, solar flares, cosmic rays, radiation in space, and stellar physics questions. Generally, nuclear-related astrophysics, but I can usually point you in the right direction if it's not nuclear-related or if it's nuclear but not astrophysics.

Experience

Currently a physics professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Doctoral dissertation was on a reaction in CNO-cycle fusion, worked in gamma-ray astronomy in the space science division of the naval research laboratory in the high-energy space environment branch.

Organizations
Physics professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in physics, research was on nuclear fusion reactions important in stellar fusion.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.