Lets define a few terms for this Blog:
Un-Observable Universe: Universe that cannot be seen or observed with our eyes or telescope. It is Infinite and remains unknown.
Observable Universe: All the Universe that can be seen or observed with our eyes or telescope. It is Finite and can be studied.
COG: (Center of Galaxy), Please note this is not actually the center of Galaxy, because nobody can reach the COG, but a region in the universe, where direction of travel is towards the Center of Galaxy.
EOG: (Edge of Galaxy or End of Galaxy). This region also cannot be reached, as machines fail long before they reach the edge of the Galaxy, and is an extremely cold region of the universe.
COG: (Castle of Glass), I have used another color to distinguish it from COG above. COG is a “man made area” around earth where we can safely navigate. And it is protected by machines. We can see outside this COG like we see through a glass, but cannot physically travel as we won’t be able to survive beyond this point. And this castle which is also fragile protects us from dangers of Universe. COG shape resembles a snake or zig-zag pattern
Un-Observable Universe > Observable Universe > Castle of Glass > Earth > Your House
The number of directions that you can travel or think of travelling depends on your location. Lets discuss this at 3 levels.
1. Inside a Room: Let’s say you are standing inside a room, and this room is a cube in shape. Now there will be 6 major directions that you can either move or think of moving, which are the 6 faces of the cube in which you are in.
2. On A spherical Object: Let’s say you are on a spherical object earth, now you can move:-
– North
– South
– East
– West
Assuming that you are not taking a flight yet. There are realistically only 4 directions that you can move.
3. In Deep space and orbit of the star/planet very remotely: Let’s assume you are on a Rocket Ship that is orbiting a star/planet. Here the number of directions start converging and you can only move in 2 Directions called COG and EOG. Refer to the picture.
In travelling small distances like within a closed room, an object can move in all directions. But that object when travelling in “astronomical distance” can only move in 2 directions.
How is it possible to move in only 2 Directions ?
Point #3, sounds like magic. Here is the explanation. Like you see in this picture on the Inflated balloon, there are 4 directions that you may travel.
But as we know that even the speed of light has a limit, and cannot go beyond a certain distance. And it starts bending towards heavy objects. So as we increase the size of universe to be observed, it gets compressed. So In case of a balloon, when we compress it, it will deflate. So we can see that the North and East converge to one direction and South and West will converge to the second direction. And these 2 directions are COG and EOG.
In deep space the space-time region is stretched and squeezed like the rubber of the balloon so no matter in whichever direction you start to move, Gravity will squeeze or stretch your space-time region into either COG or EOG.
Shape of the Universe?
So as shown in the picture above, we have zoomed in our “Observable Universe” from the first colored picture. And it looks like a pizza piece only, and what you may have seen as a Spiral Galaxy(Milky Way) is an imagination of the remaining pizza slices. We cannot say for sure that the Galaxy is a spiral disc or not. Based on the Observable Universe, we have Imagined that the “Un-Observable Universe” will also contain more such slices of pizza and they will join to form a circular disc.
Sorry but that cannot be proved. Because, we can neither reach the COG, as the heat increases as we move towards the COG, thereby failing our machines so we cannot go further in that direction. And when we move to EOG, it is so cold that our machines fail again. So forget about sending humans, when machines itself cannot reach closer to either of these regions.
Our total universe(both observable and unobservable) shape cannot be known. It can be a disc, line, point or anything else. You can imagine and fantasize and you may be right. But that imagination is “Falsifiable” by another person.
Why is the “Observable Universe” not like an Ice cream cone but a pizza slice ?
This is a very good question. Because earlier we did believe that it is like a cone. However, by sending both light and objects randomly in all directions. It was found that objects and light travel farthest in either EOG or COG directions only. Any sideways movement in any other direction swings the object and light to COG only. So it is not a cone and a pizza slice.
Is Castle Of Glass also a Cage Of Glass ?
Yes, becuase you can see that in the “Observable Universe” pizza slice other than COG and EOG there are 2 more directions which are Backyard and Foreyard of the Observable Universe. You can imagine yourself on an “automatic treadmill” going from Backyard to Foreyard, and no matter how fast you run, you cannot run beyond Foreyard or fall back in the Backyard. Because the heaviest Stars in our Observable Universe(depcited by bigger Red dot in the picture), have enough gravitational power to stop not only matter but even light, so we cannot escape the Observable Universe. So we are stuck in a “Cage Of Glass”.
It is compared to a glass also becuase sometimes in a shopping mall or office, when you look through a very clean “completely transparent” glass door or a glass wall. You may try to go through the glass mistakenly thinking it is not there as you can clearly see beyond the glass. But your body gets hit with the glass, and you realise that you cannot go further.
Are there other Galaxies also ?
It depends on how you define a galaxy. If your definition is that it is like a group of 7 stars named “Saptarshi mandal” and call it a galaxy. Then yes there are many such galaxies.
However if you mean all the 286 Observable Stars (Give or take another 5 may be). Then all these stars have been found to orbit, the COG direction as shown in the “Observable Universe” picture from Backyard to Foreyard. And because we can observe neither the Center of our Galaxy Or the Edge of our Galaxy, then how can we comment that there are other galaxies also ? It is impossible to comment and it remains unknown.
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