I recently learned what it really means when people say space is constantly expanding. At first I thought it just meant more matter is getting created on the outer areas of the universe or something. But it’s moreso space in the spacial sense is expanding between everything, like a balloon being inflated. This opened up a realm of stuff I hadn’t thought about, with my brain struggling to comprehend how there is finite ‘space’ in that sense. Like how does existence itself have a limit to size? For distance as a concept to exist, the space between atoms has to be finite, and doesn’t break down infinitely. But my brain can’t comprehend this, similar to how it can’t comprehend there being nothing before the big bang. It obviously can’t be infinite because there’d be no existsnce as we know it, but how can it be finite and exist at all?
I guess the question is, how is there a limit to the space between atoms?
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We don’t know of the universe is finite or infinite. We do know that the *observable* universe is finite. We know this because as we look out, the apparent velocities of cosmic objects gets larger as they get further away from us. We measure these velocities through different methods, but the long and short of it is that when something moves towards or away from you the wavelength of light it emits changes.
As for the space between atoms, the balloon analogy works well. Imagine atoms as dots on a balloon. As you blow up a balloon, the space between the dots (or atoms) expands, but this isn’t due to the movement of the dots themselves.
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