Does the universe, have a limit? Does the universe have an edge? Looking out to the edge of the universe is tremendously important to understand our place in the cosmos and to understand the universe itself. Inflation was a formative moment for our universe. By the time it stopped, the universe's basic characteristics were set. There could be regions of the greater universe where inflation didn't stop then. Occasionally a little region will stop inflating and just expand at the normal rate. We could imagine a super large-scale structure where there's different regions of the universe, domains, and each domain has different local constants and laws of physics.
It's a mystery mankind has struggled to solve since the beginning of history - is space infinite or might there be great cosmic border where everything ends? Groundbreaking cosmology and state of the art space telescopes, now suggest the Universe has a finite size and a unique shape. If this is true, there must be an edge to the Universe, and beyond that edge, there could exist a world beyond our wildest dreams.
When we look up into the sky it appears we live in a universe that is filled with light. But scientists are now certain there is far more matter in the dark portions of our universe that we can’t see or touch. There’s something hiding in the shadows. Cosmologists agree that 'dark matter' has helped shape our Universe, but now they need to figure out what dark matter is. What’s going on in this hidden world? Could it have formed its own dark stars, planets, and even life forms? Could this Shadow Universe threaten our world of light?
Experts explore the elusive endeavor of determining the age of the cosmos. Understanding the age of the universe is fundamental to understanding the universe at all. It's at the heart of everything. We want to know how much mass is in it, how much energy is in it, how it behaves. We have to have this number nailed down. The age of the universe enables us to not only understand where we came from, but potentially, the fate of the universe, what will happen millions and billions of years from now. The idea that the universe grew from a ball smaller than a pinhead is hard to understand, but figuring out when it happened sounds like it should be more straightforward. But it turns out, getting the age of the universe is pretty tricky.
There's evidence that dark matter makes up 85% of all the matter in the universe. We can see dark matter holding galaxies together and ripping other structures apart, we even see it bending light. Dark matter itself has been around since the beginning of the universe. Without dark matter, we wouldn't be here. But if you can't see dark matter and if you can't touch it, does it really exist? Dark Matter is thought to be the cosmic glue that holds the universe together, yet the search for it continues to eluded scientists today.
Inflation was a formative moment for our universe. By the time it stopped, the universe's basic characteristics were set. There could be regions of the greater universe where inflation didn't stop then. Occasionally a little region will stop inflating and just expand at the normal rate. We could imagine a super large-scale structure where there's different regions of the universe, domains, and each domain has different local constants and laws of physics.