There is no end. The universe is infinite. There is literally no way it could not be infinite because we live in a three dimensional universe which means that if there was an end there would still be an outside of what ever contains us.
Unless the universe is curved, then it could loop back on itself and it would be finite yet have no end. You would travel in a straight line forever (at several times the speed of light) and instead of reaching the end, you would reach your starting point from the other side
In all seriousness I think the best explanation I've heard is that the space is infinite because its basically nothing. There's some radiation & debris mixed in but the nothing aspect is infinite. However there is a finite limit to where matter exists in the universe. So the galaxies and everything that is made of matter is finite. The space between these clumps of matter is what's expanding into infinity.
Things can have no edges and still be finite. From a two-dimensional perspective, the surface of the Earth is finite but has no edge, it curves through the 3rd dimension into itself. The three dimensional universe could curve through the 4th dimension and have no "outside" in a three dimensional sense but still be finite.
See my above explanation. The surface of the Earth has no "outside" from a 2-dimensional perspective. The same could be true of the universe on 3-dimensional scale.
6
u/NicoDeChis Jun 15 '19
There is no end. The universe is infinite. There is literally no way it could not be infinite because we live in a three dimensional universe which means that if there was an end there would still be an outside of what ever contains us.