if space is infinite does that mean there are an infinite number of stars?
In: Mathematics
Olber’s paradox: Why is the night sky dark? If the universe is infinite, and we are in a typical part of it, then every line of sight from your eye into the sky will end on the surface of a star. In this case, the night sky should be a bright as the surface of the sun.
The original thought was that this meant the universe is **either** not infinite, **or** we live in a very atypical part of it – the only part with stars.
[The actual answer was more amazing than either of those two answers.](https://youtu.be/BG8OP76hUdc)
If you want the pure logic:
No, it does not imply that.
The space could be infinitely made up of only hydrogen atoms. or just empty.
To add, we will never know unless wormholes turn out to be true and we learn how to use them to travel across the universe because even if we get to light speed the edge of the universe is travelling as fast for so long that we would never ever be able to catch up to it at light speed. So we will never know.
If there are infinite dimensions doesn’t that mean there’s infinite versions of what’s happing right now? Like is there a dimension withe me redditing with 100 monkeys typing Shakespeare’s Macbeth into 100 typewriters….
It’s really hard to say, because both possibilities seem to be an impossible paradox. If space is infinite, then there is infinite stars. If space is not infinite, there is not infinite stars, but then what’s “outside” of the space?
All this to say, we don’t yet know for sure, but there’s plenty of theories.
Humans are a collection of countless molecules in a pattern. Given enough chances there would be another exact copy of “you”. And if the universe is truly infinite than there are infinite copys of you out there because the pattern would keep repeating … Infinitely
I watched a video which basically stated that if the universe was infinite then it would begin repeating itself because there is a finite amount of ways to arrange even an infinite number of atoms. So, you could reach a point in space that is 100% identical to where we are now and it would be impossible to tell the difference other than the fact you know you’ve travelled away from the original point. But then, you could make the assumption that you’ve looped back and it would be equally valid.
Lots of theories, no provable answer is probably the best, although disappointing answer. Some theories seem more or less plausible than others.
In my humble opinion the simplest idea is there is a set amount of matter and energy, and if we ignore gravity, and lets not talk about the expansion of space for my simple example here, there is no obvious reason that matter and energy could not just keep moving along going further and further, resulting i space being infinite, but there is still that initial amount of energy.
Of course if I had all the answers case closed, I clearly don’t, this is just kind of a simple idea, and raises other questions such as how was the amount of matter and energy made in the first place? Why not 1% higher or lower, or 1000%?
Based on what we can see there is no reason to think it is different outside the observable universe. Everything is the same in every direction we look, galaxies and more galaxies. While you can never prove it, looking at our patch suggest the rest might be like this too. We have no reason to think if we went further out we would expect the galaxies to taper off. And the measurement of the observable universe’s curvature is flat insofar as our best measurements can tell, that is consistent with infinite, although not a guarantee. But if it is and the rest is filled with galaxies like our patch, then yes there would be infinite stars.
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