The key would be to look at the Universe on the largest scales and to look for locations where it appeared to have the same properties in different directions on the sky. If you do die in space, your body will not decompose in the normal way, since there is no oxygen. 8 comments. Edit 2 - Thank you to everyone who responded. The large-scale structure of the Universe fails to show any structure like this, but there's an even better place to look: the cosmic microwave background! As you approached the end of your journey, you’d slow down to the point where you could land safely, if it weren’t for the fact you’d need a spotter to catch you when you made your grand entrance from the tunnel. The shape of the universe depends on its density. Image credit: ESO and deviantART user InTheStarlightGarden, under a c.c.-by-s.a. 4.0 license. And finally, could it be the case, just as the Earth has two dimensions we can move in on it (north-south and east-west, but not up-and-down), that the Universe might be a higher-dimensional structure like a hypersphere or a hypertorus where the various dimensions are closed and finite, curving back on themselves? This interesting behavior is not due to a lack of gravity, but is due to the fact that they are in free fall. Image credit: the Smoot group at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, via http://aether.lbl.gov/universe_shape.html. If you were immortal you'd probably carry on for ever because either the Universe is expanding faster than you're moving or if not you'd go round the back to where you started (cos space is curved in other dimensions). save. As far as we can tell, it's flat, non-repeating and possibly (but not necessarily) infinite. When you shoot the gun, the bullet will go straight in the direction that you are pointing the gun. Down is therefore towards the earth's center and up is away from the earth's center when close to the earth. Unfortunately, in an effort to explain why north is not up and south is not down, many people conclude there is no up or down in space, which is clearly wrong. If there is what would you see? Now, suddenly, the entire ground turns upside down (while you are still upside down). Back when people thought the Earth was flat, it was almost heretical to suggest that traveling in a straight line for a long enough distance would eventually bring you back to your starting point. If you get far enough away from our cluster of galaxies, down just becomes towards the next closest cluster. The appearance of different angular sized of fluctuations in the CMB results in different spatial... [+] curvature scenarios. A simulation of the large-scale structure of the Universe. It seems like every video I watch on space is planets are on a plane and all our galaxy's are scattered on the grid. You run up against what’s known as “terminal velocity.” A bullet fired straight up will slow down, stop, then fall to earth again, accelerating until it reaches a point where its weight equals the resistance of the air. After thousands of feet gravity will have slowed the bullet’s upward movement to the point of apogee. Since there is gravity everywhere in space, there is also an up and down everywhere in space. A simulation of the structure of the Universe. On Earth, its easy to take gravity for granted. All matter in space is constantly falling down. Unless the Universe repeated on a scale that was less than about 15 billion light years in diameter today, we'd have no way to ever return to our original starting point by traveling in a straight line. Near Saturn, down is towards Saturn. Space is so big that this falling down motion is so slow that on an astronomical scale that we don't notice it much. You have answered a life long question. The fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background, as seen by Planck. Given that we're limited to how far light can travel in 13.8 billion years, there's plenty of room for this to still be the case. Surprisingly, you probably wouldn’t explode. The round path of their orbit is a direct indication that they are falling and that they are experiencing a down (which is towards a focus of their orbit), even if they can't feel it while in a state of free fall. You should be able to convince yourself that the only way this can happen is if the two objects start off in the same direction and at the same speed. Near the moon, down is towards the moon. repeating structures. If you keep going, you will leave the Milky Way galaxy. I am a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. If you dig straight down from here: You will end up here: This webpage is useful for teaching, geography, maps, entertainment, education, school, K12, antipode, antipodal, the other side of the world, etc. But it's true: travel about 40,000 kilometers (or 25,000 miles) in any one direction -- over the mountains, oceans and any other terrain you ran across -- and return you would to where you began. In general, the meteors travel in a (approximately) straight path. Gravity is a centrally attractive force, so "going down" means falling or being pulled towards the center of the nearest massive object. Also, to make and launch your own bubble-powered rocket, click on "Make spacey things." Then you would simply fall towards whatever body has the strongest gravity. The gravity did not magically disappear in the elevator shaft just because you closed your eyes and jumped. All we can see is the part of it accessible to us, which allows us to place constraints on what its topology is allowed to be. But if I was looking at this happen from me floating in space what direction would they be going. But it is definitely there. The fluctuations in the Big Bang's leftover glow have a very particular pattern to them, but they also exhibit a random distribution of that particular pattern. Basically, the rocket only goes straight up for a short period of time, then turns slightly off to allow Gravity to actually work for the rocket. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. Down is not towards the earth's South Pole and up is not towards the earth's North Pole. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Hallman (University of Colorado, Boulder). 73% Upvoted. down, falling down, gravity, orbit. hide. It seems to take so much fuel to go straight up, and in my mind I can't see to get my head around why they don't take off like a plane and go up gradually like that. Now, the bullet will fall back down, again without air resistance, accelerating at 32 ft./s squared. The down direction is still very real and is evident from the fact that you are falling in that direction, even if you can't feel which way is down. However, that doesn't mean it isn't possible for the Universe to be closed, finite, and for it to fold in on itself the way a Hypersphere or a Three-Torus does. ELI5:What happens if you fly straight down into space or fly straight up? If you didn't age, perhaps you could even wind up seeing the back of your own head just by looking for long enough, as your eyes would eventually encounter the light emitted from your own origin. It only means that if the Universe does repeat, if it is a closed hypersurface, and if we could theoretically re-emerge in the same spot after traveling in a straight line for long enough, it is so on a scale that's larger than the part we can observe. When falling freely, our human senses cannot detect which way is down. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Image credit: Bryan Brandenburg, under c.c.a.-s.a.-3.0. Instead they talk about "orbits", "trajectories", and "paths". Image credit: ESA and the Planck collaboration. If you go out of our solar system and do not enter another solar system, down is towards the center of our galaxy. For one, it's only been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang, and so we can only see the amount of space that 13.8 billion years of light traveling through the Universe and winding up where we are can illuminate. Second, without rockets to maintain your speed, you'll slow down and spiral toward Earth. Because the falling of spaceships, moons, and planets looks much slower on astronomical scales than you falling off your roof, scientists don't use the word "falling" much. ... what happens if instead of flying towards mars or another planet you just went straight up. But the lack of such a detectable, repeating structure doesn't necessarily mean that the Universe doesn't have this type of topology. The size of our visible Universe (yellow), along with the amount we can reach (magenta). It just means that the expansion of the Universe -- accelerating as it is -- forbids us from ever completing a single "circumnavigation" of the Universe and returning to our origin. Well, you'd still die, but at least you wouldn't explode! But it won't be quick. And to make the question more interesting: when finally arriving there would it be possible to gain enough speed to get into orbit? portion of the overall structure. (Although you’d lose consciousness after about 5.) Image credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Hallman (University of Colorado, Boulder). That’s its terminal velocity. Rockets are supposed to go into space, right? There is an up and down in space. Nothing magical happens if you are leave earth's surface and board the International Space Station: down is still in the same direction. The Same Reason You Would Study Anything Else, The (Mostly) Quantum Physics Of Making Colors, This Simple Thought Experiment Shows Why We Need Quantum Gravity, How The Planck Satellite Forever Changed Our View Of The Universe. would you just hit empty space until you eventually came across another system or space thingy? Image credit: Dr. Zarija Lukic. As an ant, you don't look up and don't look down, just forward, backward, left and right, and you can only move in those directions. I have won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for my blog, Starts With A Bang, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. But what would happen if you just go straight up, let's say 10,000 kilometers? What would happen if you got far enough away from the earth that its gravity were no longer significant? The terms become largely irrelevant, with up meaning nothing more than "whatever is above where my head happens to be". If you can’t breath, your body won’t stay alive for more than about 30 minutes. The chances that it will actually hit you are pretty small, but it might hit someone else nearby. Topics: Is it possible that one (or more) of them is an infant version of the Milky Way we grew up in? The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it. Follow me on Twitter @startswithabang. When things drop or spill things it all goes down. and the Virgo Consortium/Millennium simulation, edited by E. Siegel. Public Domain Image, source: Christopher S. Baird. Physics. Perhaps, as time goes on and more of the Universe slowly reveals itself to us, or as our curvature measurements get more precise, we'll discover a departure from what we've concluded so far. If you went straight up, you wouldn't have any sideways speed. The Nile river would never flow north if north were really up. Otherwise you’d pop up and then fall back into your super hole, heading straight back the way you just came from. what happens when you go up or down. Image... [+] credit: E. Siegel, based on work by Wikimedia Commons users Azcolvin 429 and Frédéric MICHEL. If you got in a rocket ship and traveled fast enough for long enough, and didn't ruin things by colliding with a distant star or galaxy, could you eventually return to where you started? Every nook and cranny of the universe is filled with myths and mysteries, and the absence of gravity in space is no exception. If you like this video - put Thumb Up button (please) and Subscribe to my channel! Up and down only applies to being on the surface of a planet or object with gravity. When it is shot straight up if we had no air resistance the bullet would slow based on the force of gravity at 32 ft./s squared. There are no lines in space either. In space if you go straight in space where would that take you No matter how technologically advanced you imagine a human will someday be, so long as we're limited by the speed of light we'll never be able to find out, even if the Universe is really this way. I am a Ph.D. astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. Image credit: Dr. Zarija Lukic. While most of the Universe would be difficult to identify as recurrent, since the finite speed-of-light means we'd be seeing the same objects at different stages in their evolution (like a younger Milky Way), there are always a slew of objects that would appear at the same stage of evolution at various locations. Edit - Spelling and grammar. It is what happens to you when you ... to letting go of the string," writes Masters. If you get out of our galaxy and don't enter another galaxy, down is towards the center of our cluster of galaxies. Ask Ethan: How Large Is The Entire, Unobservable Universe? share. Image credit: ESO and deviantART user InTheStarlightGarden, under a c.c.-by-s.a. 4.0 license. The pressure from the water would push in on the person’s body, causing any space … Many algorithms have been programmed to look for repetitive, non-random signals or for correlations between the fluctuations on various parts of the sky. This mistaken notion comes from the way we traditionally hold flat maps. in one direction with identical galaxies in another would be evidence for a repeating Universe. We usually see only the large ones travel down towards the horizon while the small ones are burnt up long before that (giving the impression of coming from the horizon). As you go deeper into the black hole, space becomes ever more curvy The outermost boundary of the hole is its event horizon, the point at which …

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