How big is the universe?

[xortex]

Really.

 

[Kemaiku]

Around 93 billion lightyears on it's longest axis which is the "plane" of it, the X and Y lengths. It isn't as "tall" so I don't remember it's Z height.

That's the best estimate as of around 2010/2011.

 

[xortex]

The universe is short and fat? I knew it. With glasses, right? and pimples.

but isn't distance and things like color a function of the five or six? senses physically?

 

[Kemaiku]

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=ou...bnh=101&tbnw=180&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:80

This is the "shape" that we know, outside a certain distance it's hard to determine anything.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Is that not just a measurement of how far we can see?

 

[Methos]

about twice as large as Kirk's ego...

M

 

[DonIago]

The universe is a spheroid region 705 meters in diameter.

 

[Kemaiku]

Is that not just a measurement of how far we can see?

It is but I didn't want to just go "oh, very big". It's the current estimate for the observable universe and a way to start a debate in an otherwise um, questionable thread given the OP.

 

[xortex]

You mean by the OP, don't you? Stop complaining.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Is that not just a measurement of how far we can see?

It is but I didn't want to just go "oh, very big". It's the current estimate for the observable universe...

IIRC, the observable universe isn't so much a measurement of how far we can actually see as it is a measurement of what we can possibly see. I think it takes into account light or signals that actually hasn't reached Earth yet, but is theoretically or presumably out there given our science. On a world in an another part of the cosmos, the observable universe may be smaller or larger than the one on Earth.

 

[Deckerd]

The observable universe is perfectly acceptable, since we have telescopes to see back to close to the emergence of the universe as it is shaped now. What I wonder about is what it's spinning round and how many of them are spinning round with ours.

 

[The Dominion]

We don't know. We can't even see all of it, and the actual volume of space could be infinite.

So, really really big.

Since this is GTD, I'll also throw out that the size of the universe in Trek is likely meant to be the same theoretical size of the universe in reality, unless the writers decide to say otherwise.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The universe is a spheroid region 705 meters in diameter.

you win the thread.

 

[horatio83]

This neatly illustrates the size of the universe.

 

[DonIago]

The universe is a spheroid region 705 meters in diameter.

you win the thread.

(takes a bow) Thank you.

BTW, it's down to 563 meters now.

 

[bbailey861]

This neatly illustrates the size of the universe.

Very neatly. This isn't this first time that I have seen this - but I do love scaling back and forth to see the differences. It is always a big 'Wow'.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Smaller than Oprah's ass.

 

[scotpens]

We don't know. We can't even see all of it, and the actual volume of space could be infinite.

I always thought the universe was finite but expanding and unbounded, like the surface of a balloon that’s constantly being inflated.

 

[xortex]

Inflating into what? Is the Star Trek universe bigger than the real universe?
That zooming in thing was spooky BTW. Like being dropped out of a plane into the ocean. I was too scared to go all the way down to the smallest thing.

 

[The Dominion]

We don't know. We can't even see all of it, and the actual volume of space could be infinite.

I always thought the universe was finite but expanding and unbounded, like the surface of a balloon that’s constantly being inflated.

Well, the universe defined as objects made from matter is thought to be finite, but the actual volume of space maybe infinite (hence the theory that everything in the universe can expand indefinitely.) Of course, we can't measure pure space yet, and don't know if it even can be.

It depends on if you want to know the span of the universe as all the observable objects in existence, or the scope of all space.