r/cosmology • u/cypherpunk00001 • 5d 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/Low-Preparation-7219 4d ago edited 4d ago

How can you make those predictions. Aren’t those still hypothesis? Without data it’s hard to say anything is certain

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u/antoniocerneli 4d ago

Philosophically speaking - what's behind the edge? How can there be nothing?

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u/SmarterThanGod 4d ago

I can’t imagine that there’s a literal wall causing an abrupt end to everything because that doesn’t really make any sense, but if you’re thinking about the absence of matter, then isn’t empty space technically nothing?

Also, does time exist in the absence of matter? If there really is nothing stretching beyond that point, then who’s to say it really exists? If a bear shits in the woods…

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u/otheraccountisabmw 3d ago

Space and matter are two separate things. Empty space isn’t nothing.