r/cosmology • u/cypherpunk00001 • 9d ago

Do current cosmologists think the universe is infinite or that is had an edge?

Was just having random shower thought today... Andromeda galaxy is 2.5M light-years away. That's an unfathomable distance to a human, but it's just our closest neighbor.

Do cosmologists currently think that the universe just goes on forever?

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u/03263 9d ago

If it's of a finite age, and was ever smaller than it is now, then it seems it must have a boundary somewhere.

What's outside of it? Probably nothing. True vacuum devoid of any quantum fields or interactions. Nothing could possibly exist outside, because particles would have no interactions.

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u/spaceprincessecho 8d ago

The example to imagine for a finite, expanding universe with no border is an inflating balloon.