06. Is the Universe endless or is it a huge black hole? (A K2S Question)

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A good question! Black holes describe space-time near a massive gravitationally- collapsed star while the big bang theory offers a descriptive solution to the actual creation of space-time in our Universe. So these are really two totally different concepts and both lead to great thought provoking questions. A satellite called the W-MAP—short for Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe, and named for physicist David Wilkinson— was launched by NASA on June 30, 2001. It has taken a whole-sky picture and discovered radiation remnants only 380,000 years after the big bang just prior to the formation of the first stars in our Universe. This puts the size of our observable Universe at a distance of 13.7 billion light years. New evidence also shows that the expansion of the Universe is continuing and even accelerating.

Answer provided by Jim Zebrowski


Image:K2S logosmall.jpg Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer


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