Aterna

OHHHHHHHH! Hahahahaha, what have I been thinking all this time? Glad I met you. You actually took the time to explain all that to a dummy like me. If I could bow 1000 times to you, I'd do it. Thank you. I understand it now. I really don't know what else to say. My question has been pretty much cleared up.

Ahh, that makes much more sense now that you explained it like that. So, basically, if I were to shoot out the earth right now going at the speed of light I'd never reach those galaxies because they are moving away even faster than me (due to the universe's expansion???). If that's true than, how about going way faster than the speed they're receding? We'd have to eventually reach it. And that's kinda where I was trying to get to with my original question. It was meant to sound something like: if I could right now leave the earth and go in a straight like (this is not a matter of reaching other galaxies) at a speed faster than anything else and eventually reach the "edge" what would I find? I know that the universe is shaped in such a way that you'd be back where you started, but I guess it's because I can't picture it that way that I ask this question. Realizing that the universe is shaped that way, I always think of a circle (which is neverending and you always end up where you started). So I picture myself in the middle of the circle, going toward the edge in a straight line, OUT the circle. I feel really dumb because I'm probably picturing the wrong thing here. I just don't understand how you could possible end up on earth again.

I know I'm late, but wow, you actually made a thread on my question. I was actually hesitant to post that question as I thought nobody would care and it wasn't worth thinking about, me not being very good at science and all and thinking it was a stupid question. Also I must say, reading what you had to say about it in this thread confused me very much and I'm not sure I understand everything. But I'll give it a few more reads and see what I can comprehend. Thanks.

This is an interesting thread. I've always thought about these types of things. We all know they say that if we were to travel the universe, we'd end up where we started. And that there's no "outside" because if there was, that would also be part of our universe. That still doesn't help answer the question though, not that it CAN be answered. One thing to think about is that if we were to shoot out the earth in one direction and kept going straight up (I know it's impossible but imagine for the sake of the example) what would we eventually reach? The "edge"? (assuming there was one after assuming the universe is finite) What's after the edge? Nothing? What would happen to us? Would be just "bump" into the edge not being able to go any further? It's not that I'm looking for an answer as nobody knows for certain (and we'll NEVER know) but it's interesting to think about.