The observable universe is 156 billion light-years across, determined by the WMAP telescope. The universe is flat and accelerating, and its size is the size of space itself. The oldest stars provide an independent measure of the universe’s size. We cannot know what is beyond the universe’s boundary.
The current observable universe was determined to be 156 billion light-years across, with an error of less than 1%, by the latest deep-space telescope WMAP. At first it might seem impossible that scientists are so sure about this astronomical measurement, but this figure has been narrowed down by years of research and determined by different paths of inquiry. Furthermore, the size of the universe depends intimately on its shape, age, acceleration and total mass, so we are very confident in this figure.
In 2003, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe sent back enough data for scientists to publish highly reliable studies that established two previously unknown facts. They determined that the universe is flat, meaning that standard Euclidean geometry is valid on a larger scale. This can be understood by saying that a straight line remains more or less a straight line as long as it extends. They also determined that it is accelerating at an ever-increasing rate, meaning all the mass is flying away from each other at ever-faster speeds. The WMAP data measured the temperature, called the cosmic microwave background, of our observable universe with unprecedented accuracy, within 5 percent error. From these facts, we can deduce figures such as its radius.
Remember that the size of the universe is not a constant value, nor is it the size of an object as we traditionally understand it. It is actually the size of space itself, and as space expands so does the space between planets, stars and galaxies. At the beginning of the universe, the Big Bang created space and time as we know it. Since that time, space has expanded, so we find its size by measuring how far light from the Big Bang may have traveled, along with how much space has expanded.
We can only look or communicate to the edge, or “horizon,” of where light has traveled since the beginning of the universe. The size of the universe indicates the space in which we can interact with anything. We’ll never know what’s “beyond” this boundary, because there’s no way to know anything about it, so it’s illogical to consider the realm “outside” of our universe, or to ask what we’re expanding into “into.”
An independent measure of the size of our universe can be given by studying the oldest stars. The oldest stars we have found are probably between 11 and 14 billion light years old. If we had stars older than the maximum distance that light travels, we’d know there was something wrong with our calculations; there would not have been enough time for them to evolve.
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