Observable universe
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Observable universe
Visualization of the whole observable universe. The scale is such that the fine
grains represent collections of large numbers of superclusters. The Virgo
Supercluster—home of Milky Way—is marked at the center, but is too small to
be seen.
Diameter 8.8×1026 m or 880 Ym (28.5 Gpc or 93 Gly)[1]
Volume 4×1080 m3[2]
Mass (ordinary matter) 1.5×1053 kg[note 1]
Density (of total energy) 9.9×10−27 kg/m3 (equivalent to 6 protons per cubic
meter of space)[3]
Age 13.799±0.021 billion years[4]
Average temperature 2.72548 K[5]
Ordinary (baryonic) matter (4.9%)
Contents
Dark matter (26.8%)
Dark energy (68.3%)[6]
The observable universe is a spherical region of the universe comprising
all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and
exploratory probes at the present time, because the electromagnetic radiation from
these objects has had time to reach the Solar System and Earth since the beginning of
the cosmological expansion. There may be 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe,
[7][8]
although that number has recently been estimated at only several hundred billion
based on new data from New Horizons.[9][10] Assuming the universe is isotropic, the
distance to the edge of the observable universe is roughly the same in every direction.
That is, the observable universe has a spherical volume (a ball) centered on the
observer. Every location in the universe has its own observable universe, which may or
may not overlap with the one centered on Earth.
The word observable in this sense does not refer to the capability of modern technology
to detect light or other information from an object, or whether there is anything to be
detected. It refers to the physical limit created by the speed of light itself. Because no
signals can travel faster than light, any object farther away from us than light could
travel in the age of the universe (estimated as of
2015 around 13.799±0.021 billion years[4]) simply cannot be detected, as the signals
could not have reached us yet. Sometimes astrophysicists distinguish between
the visible universe, which includes only signals emitted since recombination (when
hydrogen atoms were formed from protons and electrons and photons were emitted)—
and the observable universe, which includes signals since the beginning of the
cosmological expansion (the Big Bang in traditional physical cosmology, the end of
the inflationary epoch in modern cosmology).
According to calculations, the current comoving distance—proper distance, which takes
into account that the universe has expanded since the light was emitted—to particles
from which the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) was emitted, which
represents the radius of the visible universe, is about 14.0 billion parsecs (about 45.7
billion light-years), while the comoving distance to the edge of the observable universe
is about 14.3 billion parsecs (about 46.6 billion light-years), [11] about 2% larger.
The radius of the observable universe is therefore estimated to be about 46.5 billion
light-years[12][13] and its diameter about 28.5 gigaparsecs (93 billion light-years, or
8.8×1026 metres or 2.89×1027 feet), which equals 880 yottametres.[14] The total mass of
ordinary matter in the universe can be calculated using the critical density and the
diameter of the observable universe to be about 1.5 × 10 53 kg.[15] In November 2018,
astronomers reported that the extragalactic background light (EBL) amounted to 4 ×
1084 photons.[16][17]
As the universe's expansion is accelerating, all currently observable objects will
eventually appear to freeze in time, while emitting progressively redder and fainter light.
For instance, objects with the current redshift z from 5 to 10 will remain observable for
no more than 4–6 billion years. In addition, light emitted by objects currently situated
beyond a certain comoving distance (currently about 19 billion parsecs) will never reach
Earth.[18]
Contents
1The universe versus the observable universe
2Size
3Large-scale structure
o 3.1Walls, filaments, nodes, and voids
o 3.2End of Greatness
o 3.3Observations
o 3.4Cosmography of Earth's cosmic neighborhood
4Mass of ordinary matter
o 4.1Estimates based on critical density
5Matter content—number of atoms
6Most distant objects
7Horizons
8See also
9Notes
10References
11Further reading
12External links
The universe versus the observable universe [edit]
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The size of the whole universe is unknown, and it might be infinite in extent. [19] Some
parts of the universe are too far away for the light emitted since the Big Bang to have
had enough time to reach Earth or space-based instruments, and therefore lie outside
the observable universe. In the future, light from distant galaxies will have had more
time to travel, so additional regions will become observable. However, owing
to Hubble's law, regions sufficiently distant from the Earth are expanding away from it
faster than the speed of light (special relativity prevents nearby objects in the same local
region from moving faster than the speed of light with respect to each other, but there is
no such constraint for distant objects when the space between them is expanding;
see uses of the proper distance for a discussion) and furthermore the expansion rate
appears to be accelerating owing to dark energy.
Assuming dark energy remains constant (an unchanging cosmological constant), so
that the expansion
