answersLogoWhite

0


Best Answer

The OBSERVABLE Universe has a diameter of about 93 billion light-years. "Observable" means that the light of anything beyond that hasn't had time to reach us, since the time of the Big Bang.

User Avatar

Wiki User

9y ago
This answer is:
User Avatar

Add your answer:

Earn +20 pts
Q: How many light years is the diameter of the known universe?
Write your answer...
Submit
Still have questions?
magnify glass
imp
Continue Learning about Movies & Television

Where in the universe is our solar system and milky way?

Milky Way: About 100,000 light-years in diameter Universe: Unknown, but the observable Universe has a diameter of about 92 billion light-years. Solar System: There are different definitions for the limits of the Solar System; if you include the Oort Cloud, you would have a diameter of about 4 light-years. That's a radius of about 2 light years, taking you about half way to the nearest star. With many other commonly used definitions, the "Solar System" is much smaller.


The longest distance light can travel since the beginning of the universe is known?

Well, it's complicated.The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. In that time, in a vacuum (and while interstellar and even intergalactic space isn't a perfect vacuum, for these purposes it's close enough), light could have travelled 13.8 billion light-years. That's pretty straightforward.Where it becomes non-straightforward is in determining the radius of the observable universe. If there's only been time for light to go 13.8 billion light-years, then the edge of the observable universe should be 13.8 billion light-years away, right?Wrong.Because the universe is expanding, light that started on its way 13.8 billion years ago got a certain percentage of its traveling done when the universe was smaller. It turns out that the earliest thing we can see is the surface of last scattering or the cosmic microwave background radiation (we can't see past that because it's effectively opaque), which is currently about 46 billion light years away. (The theoretically observable universe is actually slightly larger than that, since the decoupling event when the universe became non-opaque happened when the universe was already about 380,000 years old).So, while light can only possibly have gone 13.8 billion light years, light that started on its way to us 13.8 billion light years ago and is reaching us now came from objects that are "now" about 46 billion light years away.


Science says the universe is 12 to 14 billion years old because light from that far away has reached us but couldn't there be objects billions of light years further away?

Yes, current theory and observations suggest that the age of the universe is between 13.6 and 13.8 billion years (earth years).However please note that a light year is the distance a beam of light will travel in one earth year.


What does the universe look like on very large scales?

The evidence to date suggests something on the order of 25 - 30 billion light years in diameter. IMPROVED ANSWER - This question doesn't make any sense because your question means like if you are asking about how much a car had traveled which started travelling billions years ago. So the appropriate answer to this question is that universe is increasing its size day by day and it will never stop, so there is no limit.


If you zoomed out of the universe what would it look like?

If one defines the universe as all the mater and energy that there is, then there would be no way to get "past" it, but even in the hypothetical situation that you were somehow able to be outside the bounds of all matter and energy (aside from yourself and whatever vessel you were in), you would see nothing -- complete blackness, because the matter and energy that make up the universe that you are beyond would include light. Light travels at a finite speed -- incredibly fast, but a finite speed. When an astronomer describes a star 15,000 light years away, that means the light from that star is 15,000 years old or, in other words, it has taken the light from that star 15,000 years to reach you. The universe, as we know it, was created (according to most theorists) in an event called the big bang about 13.7 billion years ago. Light began to emit at that point, so the visible universe would have a radius of 13.7 billion light-years (or a diameter of 27.4 billion light-years). At the extreme edge of this radius, if one could somehow instantaneously get there, one might see the 'flash' of the big bang explosion that created the universe. Beyond that radius, one would be too far away to see the light from the very birth of the universe and there would only be a complete black void in every direction. No light from stars, not even cosmic radiation, complete nothingness. If you'd like an idea of how various things compare in size to the universe, you can check out the related link. It's a little misleading in some ways (for one thing, it presents "strings" and "preons" as if they actually existed... the jury is very definitely still out on that), but it's basically correct about relative sizes. Keep in mind that it's a logarithmic scale, not a linear one!

Related questions

How large is the known universe?

The observable Universe has a diameter estimated at 93 billion light-years.


What is the longest known distance in light years?

That would be the distance from one edge of the Known Universe to the other. As the Known Universe is believed to be approximately 15 billion years old, that would be 30 billion light years in diameter.


How huge is the universe?

The observable universe is thought to be a sphere about 93 billion light years in diameter (see related link).


How many galaxies are there since the universe is 93 billion light-years in diameter?

300 sextillion.


How many galaxies are there in the universe since it's 93 billion light-years in diameter?

1.5 trillion.


How vast is the univerce?

scientists have said over 250,000 light years round and still growing


How big is the univearse?

The observable Universe has a radius of about 46 billion light-years; that would be a diameter of 92 billion light-years. The entire Universe is likely much bigger, but it isn't know how much bigger.


What is the size in square miles of the Universe?

First, you would measure the diameter of the Universe in miles, or its volume in cubic miles; but what would you want to measure in square miles?Second, the size of the Universe is not currently known. The observable Universe has a radius of about 46 billion light-years. Convert that to kilometers or miles if you like. One light-year is about 10 million million kilometers. But the entire Universe is probably much, much bigger.First, you would measure the diameter of the Universe in miles, or its volume in cubic miles; but what would you want to measure in square miles?Second, the size of the Universe is not currently known. The observable Universe has a radius of about 46 billion light-years. Convert that to kilometers or miles if you like. One light-year is about 10 million million kilometers. But the entire Universe is probably much, much bigger.First, you would measure the diameter of the Universe in miles, or its volume in cubic miles; but what would you want to measure in square miles?Second, the size of the Universe is not currently known. The observable Universe has a radius of about 46 billion light-years. Convert that to kilometers or miles if you like. One light-year is about 10 million million kilometers. But the entire Universe is probably much, much bigger.First, you would measure the diameter of the Universe in miles, or its volume in cubic miles; but what would you want to measure in square miles?Second, the size of the Universe is not currently known. The observable Universe has a radius of about 46 billion light-years. Convert that to kilometers or miles if you like. One light-year is about 10 million million kilometers. But the entire Universe is probably much, much bigger.


What is the diameter of the Universe today?

The radius of the observable Universe is thought to be about 46x10^9 Light Years.(And dark matter about which we know almost nothing, occupies perhaps 90% of it).Our Milky Way Galaxy is about 100 000 Light Years across, and out nearest neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light years distant.Answer2: My estimate of the diameter is about 320E24 meters.


How can the universe be 156 billion years in diameter if it is only 14 billion light years old?

The diameter must be expressed in a unit of distance/length - for example in light-years - NOT in years. The answer is that the distant parts of the Universe are going away from us, faster than the speed of light. Inside its own local space, nothing can move faster than the speed of light. But in the case of the expansion of the Universe, you might say that space itself is expanding. This makes it possible for objects to move away from us faster than light.


What is univerese?

The universe is all existing matter and space considered as the cosmos. It is at least 10 billion light years in diameter,


How long would it take for light to go across the universe?

Answer #1:A long time.......=====================Answer #2:Classically, it would take(the diameter of the universe, in miles)/(5,878,464,424,000) years.