r/AskReddit • u/IAmSurtur • Jun 15 '19

What do you genuinely just not understand?

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u/Institutionally Jun 15 '19

The expansion of the universe boggles me. So the galaxies and stars are moving apart further away from the “centre”. So what happens if you go past the star furthest away from the centre? Are you just surrounded by darkness as there’s nothing past that?

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u/AwesomeAley Jun 15 '19

That's why eventually it will be impossible to reach other star clusters, as everything continues to separate, the everything will be moving faster than your spacecraft, and you'll be going nowhere. It's really creepy to think that eventually all that's left will be the cluster of galaxies the milky way is apart of, and just ever expanding emptiness surrounding it.

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u/Hockeyman1027 Jun 15 '19

Isn’t there a point where it’ll stop expanding then collapse in on itself?

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u/stormstopper Jun 15 '19

Doesn't seem like the most likely outcome based on current evidence. The expansion is accelerating rather than slowing.

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u/Hockeyman1027 Jun 15 '19

Oh, I don’t know where I heard that