First image of entire universe revealed

This is amazing, lovely isn't it?

you not right. The shape of the universe is determined by a struggle between the momentum of expansion and the pull of gravity. The rate of expansion is expressed by the Hubble Constant, Ho, while the strength of gravity depends on the density and pressure of the matter in the universe. If the pressure of the matter is low, as is the case with most forms of matter we know of, then the fate of the universe is governed by the density. If the density of the universe is less than the "critical density" which is proportional to the square of the Hubble constant, then the universe will expand foreve... [More]

NASA says No one knows if the universe is infinitely large, or even if ours is the only universe there is.Although our view of the universe is limited, our imaginations are not. Astronomers have indirect evidence that the universe of galaxies extends far beyond the region we can see. But no one knows if the whole universe is infinitely large - large beyond limit. According to the leading theories, other parts of the universe may look very different from our own - and may even have different laws of nature. We may never be able to find out for sure. But it is possible that clues to the answer l... [More]

Picture is nice.. It cant be the entire Universe........No way

All of these pictures are "all-sky" pictures. They show every direction it is possible to look (in 3D space) projected into a 2D image. Each pixel corresponds to every thing in a given radial direction compressed into a single point. Therefore they show the entire light-cone of the Universe from a single vantage point, which can be interpreted (at least by over-zealous science journalists) as being a picture of the entire Universe. It is not a "top down map" of the Universe.

Reminds me of a Panoramic http://squadblog.com/images/lollapalooza_panorama.jpg

That's not the picture of the universe, we live in a infinite ever expanding universe meaning there's no beginning to it and no end to and your telling me the whole of all existance is in one photo, get real! People will believe anything now.

it's not only the Milky Way, it's just that unfortunately we don't have the technology to MOVE the milky way from our line of sight. YET. edit: Also regarding the whole unlimited universe thing, the finite universe is based on the big bang. We can figure out where the edge of the universe probably is based on that. Somewhere there's a list of thought experiments to illustrate this. The one I always remember is that if the universe were infinite, light would have had forever to reach us. Logically, if that were true, there would be no point in the sky without a star shining through it and we wo... [More]

I don't understand how the universe is not infinite. Unless, however, whatever STARTED the universe existed infinitely. Either way, there must be some form of existence that has no beginning. Everything has to have a cause, thus some part of what sparked the universe has to be infinite. I know how you feel. Unfortunately, there is a difference between philosophy and mathematics. You can write down the math which postulates a Universe in which time and space are all internal parameters. "Outside" this Universe? No space, no time, nothing. Then we can argue the semantics of whether "nothing" is ... [More]

It's as if, in a sense, the math predicts something that seems to defy logic.